Sunday, 16^th November, 2003

A Western Sydney lobby group has come up with a way to fund the improved transport facilities Sydney so desperately needs.

The Rail Now Campaign advocates the introduction of a Sydney Transport Levy - a levy of 0.25% of the unimproved land value of each property in the Sydney area. “This city needs to invest more in sustainable transport,” said a spokesperson, Philip Howell. “A Sydney Transport Levy is the fairest, most efficient way to raise the funds.”

“Based on figures from the Valuer-General, the total value of land in Sydney as at July 2003 has been calculated at $466.5 billion. Had the levy been imposed this year, it would have raised $1.1 billion for facilities such as new railways.”

The levy would cost land owners $250 per year for each $100,000 of land they own.

The Rail Now Campaign says the Sydney Transport Levy is justifiable because:

1. The value of land is created by society, not by the land owner. “Sydney’s land owners know that they have not earned the recent increases in the values of their properties. The driving force has come from society as a whole. Taxing land values returns to society part of the value which society has created.”
2. Transport infrastructure improves the value of land. The levy paid by land owners to fund transport improvements will be returned to them over the years in the form of increased land value. It is a form of compulsory investment, as much as a tax.
3. Unlike other taxes, land value taxes like the Sydney Transport Levy cannot be avoided.

The recent Parry Inquiry floated such a levy as one possible means of funding transport, but it provided no details or calculations. The Rail Now Campaign has now shown exactly how such a levy could work in a detailed paper now available on the Rail Now Campaign’s web site, www.railnow.org.au.

[Contact Philip Howell on 9891 3657(W) or 0408 486 433 or 9633 3941(H) or howell@bigpond.net.au]