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Comment by ghaff | Hacker News Reader

If it's empty and crumbling, I doubt it's all that valuable to be repurposed for housing or anything else. I did note the other day in the very small downtown of a nearby minor city that the the ancient travel agent is now a party supply store. But, really, there's not a lot in that downtown.

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The point of LVT is right there in the name: it is the land that has value. "Location, location, location" is an old cliche for a reason.

If you let your property go empty and crumble, the Land Value Tax is there to provide the incentive for you to either fix up the property and actually use it, or sell it to someone who will.

What if nobody wants to buy it and you can't pay the tax?

The state takes it, and then can either sell it off or use it. This makes it easier to do things than trying to find who owns a probably abandoned property.

Or it just decays without a real owner.

Then it’s worthless and the state will take abandoned land for $0.00.

If the land is worth less than nothing (contaminated etc) then there should have been a bond involved to ensure the clean up fee was collected.

The same thing you do now when you can't sell a piece of land: you lower the price.

In addition to what others said, in this case the land is obviously not worth very much, and thus the taxes are also minuscule.

This is essentially saying "There's no hope; no one will ever return to downtown, no matter what!"... in a thread trying to find ways to prove that wrong.

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