Municipal taxes, popularly called “property taxes”, are assessed by cities and towns across the Unites States to fund police, fire, and emergency departments, as well as schools, roads and other services. This type of “ad valorem” tax—the term is Latin for “according to value”, was developed during the United States colonial period. Although various methods of property valuation have been used over the years, the use of property as an assessment basis lacks direct responsiveness to economic conditions and has led from time to time to a search for alternative methods of local taxation. The purpose of this site is to explore the possible alternatives to our current assessment methods in the hopes of developing more balanced and economically just means of assessing local taxes.