Split Rate Taxes: Thomas McKiernan’s Explainer Video

Student

Thomas McKiernan (M.R.P. '24)

Class

CRP 3850/5850 Special Topics in Planning: Economic Development: Goals, Strategies, and Tools

Instructors

Thomas Knipe

Each fall semester, Visiting Lecturer Thomas Knipe teaches a course in economic development panning. Knipe is an alumnus of the Cornell Masters in Regional Planning Program, from which he graduated in 2011. Knipe currently serves as the Director of Economic Development for the City of Ithaca, New York.

This semester, each of the students enrolled in the economic development planning course produced an “explainer” video on a specific economic development tool. In this explainer video, Cornell Masters in Regional Planning student Thomas McKiernan explains the concept of split rate taxes and their application to effective economic development. A split rate tax applies varying tax rates to the taxable value of individual property. In practice, a higher rate is applied to the land value and a lower rate is applied to individual improvements and/or structures (Lincoln Institute of Land Policy).