Rescind Egregiously Stupid Tax - San Diego Linkage Fee

Rare is the day when we have the ability to directly rebuke the stupidity of our city council; but that day would be today.  Two months ago I pointed out the uselessness of linkage fees in alleviating affordable housing problems, even if that is the stated purpose of the tax.  Felipe Monroig of the SD County Taxpayer's Association showed that most of the money actually goes to helping the homeless through "transitional" housing assistance,  a large disconnect from helping the "working poor" finding affordable housing.  Meanwhile, the fee has a negative impact on development by raising "linkage fee" taxes paid by developers by over 350%.

But there is still time to kill this tax, former Mayor, Jerry Sanders, writes in the Pomerado News:

We have less than a month — until January 23 — to collect 34,000 valid signatures of voters living in the City of San Diego. Once we do, the council will have to rescind its ill-conceived decision or put the issue before voters in June 2014.
. . .
This jobs-killer also is a zombie tax because it will continue to automatically increase year after year without any review or approval by elected officials.

His article links to the Stop the Jobs Tax web site, which gives information on how to sign the petition and of course, how to donate.  They also debunk some myths about the tax.

Despite numerous requests for information to verify this claim [that the money is leverage with federal and state dollars], the proponents of the jobs tax have provided little statistical data to support this claim. Additionally, the annual revenue estimated from this tax is too small to make much of a difference. In fiscal year 2013, for example, less than $1 million was raised.  Even the Housing Commission acknowledged that at projected peak revenue, the tax would only provide 100 homes a year noting that over 45,000 people are waiting for subsidized housing.
. . .
According to many economists, San Diego is already at a competitive disadvantage, and this tax increase makes it even more difficult to create and attract new jobs. In fact, San Diego is the only city in the entire region that charges this kind of tax for subsidized affordable housing.  Most competitor regions across the nation do not charge this tax.

This is NOT what the linkage fees will be used for. 

(Used by permission of Mjbeal  [CC-BY-SA-3.0], via Wikimedia Commons)

But the bottom line is that restrictive land use policies decrease the availability of housing which in turns drives up prices and makes it less affordable.  Nothing short of allowing more housing development is going to make a dent in the affordable housing problem in San Diego.  It's a good day when we can directly challenge the collective ridiculousness of a leftist shakedown.

What You Should Be Reading

I took a real vacation and paid only a little attention to the political world and made no attempt to blog.  It was worthwhile to re-unite with my oldest son and enjoy some of God's creation and some good man-made stuff too.  Mrs. Daddy and I loved the colder and wetter weather we encountered, not typical of Arizona.

We visited historic Jerome, AZ, where everything is reputed to be haunted, even the hamburger joint.

And we hit the trails to enjoy the local beauty of Sedona, AZ.  

And didn't neglect man-made pleasures either. Famous Pizza had great pizza and craft beer on tap including quite a few San Diego offerings.

In the meantime other San Diegans kept up the good work on keeping tabs on our state and local government.  

• Dean posted his latest entry in the long running saga of the California high speed rail debacle.  Was Judge Kenney's ruling that funding must halt and that the High-Speed Rail Authority had abused its discretion a death blow?  Read and judge for yourself.  The U-T has the full story.
• Felipe Monroig, president of the San Diego County Taxpayers Association, has done a public service by pointing out that the so-called linkage fee revenue isn't spent on affordable housing for the working poor, as the council debate would lead you to believe.  The Voice of San Diego's in depth analysis of the issue is also a public service.  Bottom line, most of the money goes to the homeless, not affordable housing for the working poor.
• The U-T reports that San Diego home prices increases are slowing. This is good news.  All of the conditions that caused the housing bubble and subsequent collapse in 2008 are still present.  Artificially high housing prices are not healthy for the economy.
• College Insurrection reports on how the ACA is affecting students at SDSU, bottom line: unintended consequences not making health care more affordable.

San Diego Linkage Fees Do Nothing for Affordable Housing

The need for a Republican mayor to veto leftist nonsense was on display Monday, when the San Diego city council passed whopping increases in the "linkage fees" on new development that ranges from 377% to 744%.  The fees are supposed to help provide affordable housing when new development results in low paying jobs.  Don't ask me how creating jobs makes people less able to afford housing.  Example, Joe didn't have a job.  A developer creates a new business.  Joe gets a job.  Joe may still not be able to afford a swanky La Jolla condo, but he is certainly in better shape than when he didn't have a job.

At a time when our local economy is still not in great shape the Democrats on the city council don't seem to care.  Consider this quote from a Democrat mayoral candidate:

“If you don’t want to pay the fee ... don’t create low-paying jobs,” lectured Councilman David Alvarez.

Don't create jobs?  Is that really Alvarez' message?  With the minimum wage set to rise again, I would think that Democrats would be in favor of any new jobs.  But since the minimum wage also puts some people out of work, I guess the Democrats prefer folks on welfare.  Actions like increasing minimum wage and discouraging development are a great way to keep people on the bottom rung of the economy from getting jobs.  It was good to see Kevin Faulconer opposing this bill. 

Meanwhile, the fees do nothing to deliver affordable housing.  

. . . both sides agreed that the fee increase does little to fill a large affordable housing void in San Diego. The city has a waiting list of about 45,000 people for affordable housing, but has lost $34 million per year due to the elimination of redevelopment agencies and federal and state budget cuts. The current linkage fee generates about $2.2 million per year.

What makes housing unaffordable are a combination of bad federal and local policies.  Various federal policies caused a bubble in the housing market and the there are still efforts to prop up prices.  If we want the poor to be able to have housing, why make it more expensive?  At the local level, limits on density and new housing development limits the supply of housing, driving up prices by depressing the stock of available housing.  City government will never have enough money to supply affordable housing, only the private sector can do so, and only with a profit motive.

What You Should Be Reading

• Dean unmasks the Corporatism that has come to define modern leftism.  That the Occupy crowd doesn't see that the Democrats are the main enablers of corporate thievery is a tribute to the failure of their critical thinking classes in college.  
• Speaking of health insurance, Suck it up millennials, health insurers are using you to pay old folk's medical bills while you live in your Mom's basement, but still managed to vote for Obama who arrange the whole deal.
• KT posts a not-so-pretty picture and a link to the debt bomb that Millenials in Chicago will inherit from decades of Democrat rule.