This market will resolve to "Yes" if, by DECEMBER 31, 2022, 11:59:59 PM CT, any major Norwegian Political party has mentioned "Land Value Tax" favorably on the section of their website that lays out their platform / list of supported policies.
Not using the word "Land Value Tax" but instead mentioning "Property Tax" combined with an exemption for buildings/improvements of greater than 50% of their value will also count.
The key Norwegian words are "landskatt" (lit. "land tax") and "eiendomskatt" (lit. "property tax"), but English language versions of the site's text, or public statements endorsing such policies by the leader of any major Norwegian Political party, will also be accepted.
This only has to happen one time by any major Norwegian Political party at any time prior to the closing date to count. IE, if they support it briefly and then remove it later by the closing date, it still counts.
"Major Norwegian Political party" is hereby defined as:
- A political party
- In the Kingdom of Norway
- That has at least 10 MP's in the national parliament ("Stortinget")
As of this writing the following parties qualify, but this may change by the date of closing:
- Labour Party / Arbeiderpartiet
- Conservative Party / Høyre
- Center Party / Senterpartiet
- Progress Party / Fremskrittspartiet
- Socialist Left Party / Sosialistisk Venstreparti
Note furthermore that absence of explicit support for Land Value Tax, but with the presence of support for redistribution of land title ownership, does not count as support for Land Value Tax.
Websites used for principal adjudication:
Labour: https://www.arbeiderpartiet.no
Conservative: https://hoyre.no/politikk/var-politikk/
Center: https://www.senterpartiet.no
Progress: https://www.frp.no
Socialist Left: https://www.sv.no
Dec 31, 4:01pm: #Norway #Georgism #Economics #Politics
1,000
3.00The results so far with just 5 days to go in the end of the year:
The ruling center/labor party definitely knows about Henry George and invoked him explicitly in announcing their new ground rent taxes on Salmon farming locations
But, I don't see any mention on any of the previously mentioned political websites yet. Unless I missed it, none of the parties mention "Landskatt" at all.
Of those who mention "Eiendomskatt" (property tax):
FrP (Progress Party, Right-Wing) want to abolish property taxes entirely
SV (Socialist Left, Left-Wing) wants differential tax rates on second and vacant homes, and deferrals on existing property taxes until change of ownership, for e.g., pensioners
Høyre (Conservatives) is against state-level property tax and wants a single uniform method for determining municipal property tax base to ensure equal treatment
SP (Center Party, Centrist) is against state-level property tax, wanting to keep it on the local government level
AP (Labor Party) is against a state-level property tax and wants to protect the ability of local governments to collect property tax locally
AP probably gets the closest, as they are in favor of local flexibility in what kind of tax regime they want:
> Kommunene har stor frihet til å tilpasse eiendomsskatten til lokale forhold, for eksempel ved å bestemme hvilke typer eiendom som skal omfattes, fra hvilket nivå skatten skal gjelde og hvor høy skattesatsen skal være, innenfor fastsatte grenser.
Lokalpolitikerne kan velge et bunnfradrag som unntar vanlige boliger fra beskatning...
Rough translation:
"The municipalities have great freedom to adapt the property tax to local conditions, for example by deciding which types of properties should be convered, from which level the tax should apply and how high the tax rate should be, within firm limits. Local politicians can choose a minimum deduction that exempts ordinary housing from taxation..."
You could squint and suggest that implies support for a split-rate property tax. But it's not explicitly mentioned, so I wouldn't count it.
I know from conversations that there's interest from individual politicians in several Norwegian parties for LVT and Split-Rate property tax, but it clearly hasn't risen to the level of salience to make it to their actual webpages. Unless somebody ninja updates in the next few days, OR I missed something buried on one of these pages, this looks like it's probably going to resolve NO.
I will of course repost this market for the next year!
So.... it's not LVT, but the ruling coalition just directly invoked Henry George in support of their new tax policies on natural resource rents. They're pushing forward with resource rent taxes on both salmon farming and wind power, to line those up with the traditional resource rent taxes on oil & hydropower, which were established according to Georgist philosophy.