Saturday, March 25, 2006
If It Grows, Tax It. . .
Metro, Portland's regional planning agency, has expanded the urban-growth boundary. But before anything can be built, it wants to spend years planning the development. To pay for that planning, it wants to tax all new homebuilding.
"If it moves, they want to tax it," Ronald Reagan used to say. "If it still moves, they want to regulate it. If it stops moving, they want to subsidize it." That's a fair description of Metro policies, though not in that particular order. They want to regulate develop, tax it to pay for the regulation, and then subsidize it to get the kind of high-density development they thing people should live in.
It used to be that builders could buy land and start construction and a year or so later you would have housing, sometimes compete with schools, roads, parks, and other infrastructure, all planned and paid for by the developer. Now government planners have to intervene, adding years to the process and driving up housing prices with delay, taxes, and limits on what can be built.
"If it moves, they want to tax it," Ronald Reagan used to say. "If it still moves, they want to regulate it. If it stops moving, they want to subsidize it." That's a fair description of Metro policies, though not in that particular order. They want to regulate develop, tax it to pay for the regulation, and then subsidize it to get the kind of high-density development they thing people should live in.
It used to be that builders could buy land and start construction and a year or so later you would have housing, sometimes compete with schools, roads, parks, and other infrastructure, all planned and paid for by the developer. Now government planners have to intervene, adding years to the process and driving up housing prices with delay, taxes, and limits on what can be built.
Comments:
Post a Comment
