KATZENBERGER AWARDED MILITARY
OUTSTANDING VOLUNTEER SERVICE MEDAL
Alfred Katzenberger, Jr. wears many hats, only one
of which is Vice President of Common Ground-USA. Readers
were informed of Katzenberger's volunteer efforts, staffing
a Georgist booth at the National Conference of State
Legislatures meetings, in the Sept.-Oct. GroundSwell issues
of l996 (St. Louis), l997 (Philadelphia), and 1998 (Las
Vegas).
Katzenberger is an active member of the Naval
Reserves and teaches at a Naval Junior ROTC Academy. This
August Naval Reserves Commanding Officer Stanley Cook in
Bridgstrom, MO, signed the paperwork recommending
Katzenberger for a Personal Award.
On December 5, 1998, J. M. Shkapsky, Commanding
Officer, Naval and Marine Corps Reserve Center, St. Louis,
notified TMC Alfred J. Katzenberger, Jr., USNR, that he had
been awarded the Military Outstanding Volunteer Service
Medal. The award is for outstanding public service with
the Public Revenue Education Council of St. Louis from
January 1, 1993 to October 1, 1998. Quoting from the
letter of notification:
"TMC Katzenberger is on the Board of Directors, a
member of the Executive Committee and currently President
of the Public Revenue Education Council (PREC). The
Council is a Missouri chartered volunteer non-profit, non-
sectarian and non-partisan educational foundation. The
Council educates the public on the basic causes of poverty
and favors the raising of public revenues by public
collection of the rental value of land apart from
improvements in order to secure the economic rent for the
community and the abolition of taxes, tariffs and/or
imposts that interfere with free production and exchange of
wealth. The Council pledges to bring these basic economic
principles to the attention of the public by all suitable
means.
"Your loyal and valued service to the Public
Revenue Education Council as Director and now as President
has helped educate thousands of area citizens concerning
the causes and prevention of poverty. Your service has
provided more than 4,000 informational packets about the
prevention of poverty to state legislators and their staffs
at three annual meetings of the National Conference of
State Legislatures. You also provided extensive research
information for two major research projects completed by
the St. Louis Board of Education and the Mayor of St.
Louis. Your extensive hand distribution and mailing of the
Public Revenue Education Council's information packets has
established PREC as the largest organization devoted to the
prevention of poverty.
"Your dedication and honorable volunteer service to
your community reflects most favorably upon yourself and
the United States Naval Service."
Congratulations from us Georgists, too, Al
Katzenberger. Your Outstanding Volunteer Service Medal has
been well earned.
(Editor's note: See related GroundSwell story,
"Henry George Enrolled in the Navy Log," May-June 1996.)
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KATZENBERGER'S STATE REP. QUOTES COMMON
GROUND-USA
Following receipt of material about site value
taxation from Al Katzenberger, his Mo. State Rep. Bob
Hilgemann published the following in his Dec. '98-Jan. '99
Constituent Communique:
"I have had several constituents, whose major
interest is in education, talk with me about the problems
of the current established real estate tax. The real
estate tax is a combination of fused levies on buildings
and improvements and on-site value. My first reaction was
skeptical, wondering what else can we do. Homeowners in
the City of St. Louis recently received their real estate
tax bill for 1998 in the mail. But thanks to a
constituent, I began looking at some of the materials put
out by Common Ground-USA (you can find out more about them
at www.progress.org/cg/; or contact Scott Walton at
sns@swwalton.com). I learned about the concept of
site value taxation. This type of property tax is based on
the premise that our current real estate taxing mechanism
discourages development, rehabilitation and property
improvements. Why? Because the reward for such activities
is higher taxes. Yet the land value upon which property
sits stays constant and is always taxed much lower than the
building (with or without improvements.) We can all see
this easily if we examine our tax bill. Based on this,
Common Ground-USA believes in replacing taxes on labor,
capital, and wealth, by using the value of land and other
natural resources to pay for essential governmental
services. In other words, the present system of low taxes
on the site value of urban land which encourages under-
utilization and speculatively withholding of land sites
from the market would come to an end. Increasing taxes on
unused (vacant lots) and under used (with obsolete
buildings) sites would be a prod for the owners to put
these sites to productive use or sell them to others who
will.
"I'd have to admit I have mixed thoughts about
this. In my neighborhood, many residents have taken
advantage of the city's program to buy the vacant lots next
to their homes. They then expanded their yards and
gardens. This enhanced green space certainly adds value to
a neighborhood. Should this type of land use be
discouraged?
"In Missouri, there has been three pieces of
legislation introduced since 1990 regarding the site value
tax. The most sensible of these was a piece of legislation
introduced in 1992 calling for a state study of land value
(site) taxation. Because this type of taxation is so
different from what we currently do, there is much work to
be done to determine if site value taxation would benefit
Missourians, and how could such a new tax system be put in
place without causing financial chaos to our communities
and residents. Let me know your thoughts on this issue."
-- Rep. Bob Hilgemann, 4l31 Blaine, St. Louis, MO 63110.
Editors note: See July-August 1995 GroundSwell,
"Study released of feasibility and potential impact of land
value tax on land values and property tax revenues in the
City of St. Louis."
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