Taxing our patients

Rich Lord provided an excellent review of what other cities are doing about non-profit tax exemptions. See the article below:

http://www.postgazette.com/pg/07057/765114-53.stm

It is clear that this situation requires some state action and some real leadership from the next Mayor. There also needs to be some new ideas about how to address this problem comprehensively. A letter to the editor addressed the issue of the City's historic division of the property tax into a tax on land and a tax on building. The City eliminated the split system some time ago, but what if it were restored? What if everyone paid tax on the use, value and amount of the land they own, and the buildings were excluded? Wouldn't this encourage less consumption of land by nonprofits and also encourage greater density in construction? If the land tax used separate bases depending on the usage - residential, commercial, industrial, then we could structure appropriate tax systems to pay for the services received. This sounds too simple, so hopefully some tax experts out there will point out the flaws.