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Trials of Tryants
Trials of Tryants
Host
Joshua Black
Description
Four Committees decide how worst to spend your money.
Listen
Transcript
Welcome to the 4th edition of the Saint Petersburg Florida Area News podcast for the year 2019. I’m your host, Joshua Black, and today we will be covering the committing meetings of the Saint Petersburg City Council that took place on January 24.
The first meeting was the Budget, Finance, and Taxation Committee meeting (hereafter referred to as BF&T). The city is proposing a nexus study to discover what sorts of fees the city can collect from new development to use for housing subsidies. The expert that is asking for $40,000 to study the ideas related to linkage fees and impact fees noted that people who buy and sell and develop land have frequently found ways to get around the fee requirements by using the code language against the would-be fee-collectors. No shock, really. That’s also how the very wealthy avoid paying income taxes.
Vice Chair Councilman Charlie Gerdes noted the contradiction in policy: the government promises incentives for companies to create local jobs and then turns around and demands fees for the infrastructure and housing subsidies. However, he didn’t question the wisdom of being so double-minded.
An odd moment in the meeting came when the discussion came to the idea of a focus group. The consultant openly stated expressly that he prefers a “progressive leaning” make up in such a group. I suppose he expects a rubber stamp for his assumptions? Unfortunately, no one on the committee called him out on it. Present were Montanari (chair), Driscoll, Foster, and Gerdes.
As the conversation continued, both staff and the proposed consultant spoke about how impact fees, linkage fees, and housing subsidy initiatives were combined with other things in places all around the country--places like Boston, New Jersey, and the West Coast. What wasn’t noted by any members of the committee, at least not outloud, is that not one of the places mentioned could be described as a model for affordable housing. The cost of living in all of those places is already much higher than it is in Saint Petersburg. Why should we adopt their practices if we don’t want their outcomes? Or do we want their outcomes?
The proposed consultant also mentioned that he preferred to focus on getting people into rentals rather than into mortgages, but he also said that the way the city gets people into mortgages (down payment assistance, for example) could be leveraged for higher dollars. He suggested that, if the city pays 5% down on the property, and the owner later sells, the city should get 5% of the new sale price, adding that to the burden of marketing the home. What a way to keep the poor from rising.
Obviously, people who need down payment assistance aren’t in the upper wealth classes of society, but yet these are the people this plan would target for 5% of the sale prices of the homes the city helped them get into. While the idea is that inflation is going to increase...
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By St. Petersburg, FL Area News | Reconstructionist Radio Reformed Podcast NetworkTrials of Tryants
Host
Joshua Black
Description
Four Committees decide how worst to spend your money.
Listen
Transcript
Welcome to the 4th edition of the Saint Petersburg Florida Area News podcast for the year 2019. I’m your host, Joshua Black, and today we will be covering the committing meetings of the Saint Petersburg City Council that took place on January 24.
The first meeting was the Budget, Finance, and Taxation Committee meeting (hereafter referred to as BF&T). The city is proposing a nexus study to discover what sorts of fees the city can collect from new development to use for housing subsidies. The expert that is asking for $40,000 to study the ideas related to linkage fees and impact fees noted that people who buy and sell and develop land have frequently found ways to get around the fee requirements by using the code language against the would-be fee-collectors. No shock, really. That’s also how the very wealthy avoid paying income taxes.
Vice Chair Councilman Charlie Gerdes noted the contradiction in policy: the government promises incentives for companies to create local jobs and then turns around and demands fees for the infrastructure and housing subsidies. However, he didn’t question the wisdom of being so double-minded.
An odd moment in the meeting came when the discussion came to the idea of a focus group. The consultant openly stated expressly that he prefers a “progressive leaning” make up in such a group. I suppose he expects a rubber stamp for his assumptions? Unfortunately, no one on the committee called him out on it. Present were Montanari (chair), Driscoll, Foster, and Gerdes.
As the conversation continued, both staff and the proposed consultant spoke about how impact fees, linkage fees, and housing subsidy initiatives were combined with other things in places all around the country--places like Boston, New Jersey, and the West Coast. What wasn’t noted by any members of the committee, at least not outloud, is that not one of the places mentioned could be described as a model for affordable housing. The cost of living in all of those places is already much higher than it is in Saint Petersburg. Why should we adopt their practices if we don’t want their outcomes? Or do we want their outcomes?
The proposed consultant also mentioned that he preferred to focus on getting people into rentals rather than into mortgages, but he also said that the way the city gets people into mortgages (down payment assistance, for example) could be leveraged for higher dollars. He suggested that, if the city pays 5% down on the property, and the owner later sells, the city should get 5% of the new sale price, adding that to the burden of marketing the home. What a way to keep the poor from rising.
Obviously, people who need down payment assistance aren’t in the upper wealth classes of society, but yet these are the people this plan would target for 5% of the sale prices of the homes the city helped them get into. While the idea is that inflation is going to increase...