If property taxes motivate people to do anything it tends to be to take a trip to the local assessor’s office.  The Roman Empire found a way to create a more positive response to property taxes.  Augustus Caesar accomplished this through flat-rate land property taxes.  This meant that property taxes were assessed not on what a property did produce but on what it could produce.  If two properties were deemed to have the same production possibility they both paid the same amount of property taxes, even though one might actually produce more.  This incentive motivated farmers to get the maximum amount of production out of the land in their care, which in turn increased the wealth of the Empire.  How’s that for smart taxes?