Arthur Peter Becker was born on April 28, 1918 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the son of Peter
Joseph and Theresa (Hanascek) Becker. Peter and Theresa were both born near Tremesvar,
Austria-Hungary in 1892 and 1897, respectively. They emigrated to the United States sometime
before 1917. Peter Becker owned and operated Park View Tailors and Cleaners at 3200 West
Lisbon Avenue in Milwaukee. The Becker's also had another child, George C., born in 1917,
who was a professor of biology at UW-Stevens Point. Peter Becker died in 1971 and Theresa
Becker in 1972.
Arthur Becker graduated from Washington High School in 1935 and attended Wisconsin State
Teacher's College from 1935 to 1937. He received a B.A., M.A. and Ph.D. from UW-Madison in
economics in 1939, 1940 and 1943 respectively. Becker also served as a teaching assistant at
UW-Madison. Becker married Bernita Mae Thompson in 1941 and they had six children: Jan
Peter, Bonita Louise, Lee Arthur, Nancy Marie, Arthur Earnest, and Karen Ann.
Becker began his teaching career as an instructor at the University of Connecticut from
1942-1944. After serving as an instructor at the University of Kansas City in the summer of
1944, Becker transferred to Eastern New Mexico University in 1944-1945 as an assistant
professor and chair of the economics department before moving to Morningside College (Sioux
City, Iowa) from 1945-1946, where he served as professor of economics and also chaired the
department. Becker then became a professor of economics at Ohio State University from
1946-1948. Becker was appointed professor at the University of Wisconsin-Extension from 1948
and then served with UWM from 1956-1978. Becker also served as head of the Economics
Department at UW-Extension from 1948-1956 and at UWM from 1957-1963. Becker was a
Fulbright-Hays Faculty Scholar in 1968 to study land taxation in Mexico.
Becker founded the Economic Policy Association of Milwaukee in 1954 and the UWM Credit
Union in 1962. He served as a member of the Milwaukee Redevelopment Authority from
1963-1978, and its vice-chair from 1973-1978. He also served as chair of the Milwaukee Urban
Institute Director from 1970-1975 and implemented a study of the fiscal behavior of local
governments in conjunction with eight other Urban Observatories, the Department of Housing
and Urban Development, and the National League of Cities. He also served as Chair of the
Milwaukee Association for the Observance of United Nations Day from 1965-1967, and the
Milwaukee Chapter of United World Federalists.
Becker was especially active in the Committee on Taxation, Resources and Economic
Development (TRED), and its affiliated association, the Robert Schalkenbach Foundation. The
Schalkenbach Foundation was a foundation established to promote the principles of nineteenth
century economist Henry George. George had dedicated his life's work to the advancement of
uniform taxation, or a single tax, on natural resources. Becker served as a member of the
Board of Directors of the Schalkenback Foundation from 1962-1973.
Becker co-founded TRED in 1962 as a national study group of academic economists whose
purpose was to stimulate research, writing and discussion in the field of natural resource
taxation and in relation of this taxation to other concerns of economists as to the
allocation and utilization of natural resources, economic development, income distribution
and employment. TRED would have the government finance its necessary activities by
collecting the unearned income arising from land and natural resources. TRED asserted that
an adequate tax on land would encourage speculators to put it to use or to sell it to
someone who would; when land is used, jobs are created and prosperity results.
Becker frequently wrote in periodicals and books about land-value taxation. His monographs
include:
- The Erosion of the Ad Valorem Real Estate Tax Base,
1972
- Land and Building Taxes; Their Effect on Economic
Development, 1969
- Land-Value Taxation and Contemporary Economic Thought,
(ed.), 1964
- Local Government Finance in the Milwaukee Standard Metropolitan
Area, 1974
- Public Utility Valuation and the Economic Theory of Regulation;
or The Economic Basis for an Investment Rate in Public Utilities, 1943
- Recent Developments in General Property Tax Assessments in
California (ed.), 1965
- The Wisconsin State Tax Dilemma,
1963
