Hi Aubrey and All,
Here is Prop A. pasted below and attached. I did not have time to look at the other two I submitted earlier in light of the controllers statements. I will not be back from dinner until 11:00 pm, so I don't know if it will be too late to submit revisions. I suggest those arguments are good enough.
Also, I don't know if I need to send Aubrey something with a specific typeface etc. Please let me know.
Marcy
The San Francisco Libertarian Party is aware of the City’s
soaring housing costs. We recommend a NO
vote on the Affordable Housing Bonds because this proposal is costlier than
other alternatives and its impact on housing prices is not substantial.
1. Bonds are
expensive long-term debt incurred by the City’s taxpayers. Residents incur the risk that the City’s
economic boom will wind down or end, decreasing the City’s revenues. Bond holders get paid their principal and
interest, regardless of how much money, if any, the City has left to pay for
basic services, such as police and fire protection.
2. Jurisdictions
should only use bonds to fund major real capital expenditures, like
construction of bridges. By approving these
bonds, voters are giving the City permission to go way beyond legitimate uses
of bonds, including giving permission to provide subsidized housing to
“middle-income households.” That
includes households making $150,000 per year.
3. The City does not
have any other source of funds to pay interest and principal on bonds except
taxes and other types of levy. That is
why the first paragraph of the proposal says that voters are “authorizing
landlords to pass-through 50% of the resulting tax increase to resident tenants”
and “providing for the levy and collection of taxes to pay both principal and
interest on such Bonds.” That’s in case
the housing bubble bursts.
4. It costs around
$700,000 to build one housing unit.
$310,000,000 would build 443 units, hardly a dent in the market. Annual cost to taxpayers would range from
$8.3 million for the first series to $26.7 million for the last series.
Vote NO on these bonds.
Developer-financed housing at the current 12 – 33% subsidized units is a
better alternative.
The Libertarian Party of San Francisco