Put the onus on owners
Any move to sell council-owned land to fund the purchase of the land at the Reading theatre complex is daft and moves by some councillors to squash the original deal are to be congratulated. The whole business reeks of corporate welfare, if ever there was, and there is no guarantee that the American owners of the complex would comply with their side of the bargain.
I say scrap the entire deal and force the owners into action by implementing a tax on the land similar to that originally proposed by Henry George, American economist and political commentator, more than a century ago.
Such a tax, also suggested by several leading economists of the 20th century, would incentivise the Reading owners to either sell or redevelop the complex in a productive way.
Going further, such a tax imposed citywide would also provide much needed funds to solve the city’s revenue and debt problems.
Michael Barnett, Mt Victoria
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