Archive for January 20th, 2009

After Killing the Golden Goose, How many City and County Employees will be Laid Off?

By Carl Schroeder, PAC Chair, Kadon Land Company

Personally, I never enjoy hearing the words “I told you so. ” When I hear that, it means I was wrong. So I won’t tell you, “I told you so,” even though I just did.

The home building industry drives the economy on a local level. However, home building is hurting. We won’t meet our projected new home permits for 2007 that was anticipated to be about half the permits pulled in 2005, our peak year.

If you factor in a resale market with over 10,000 houses for sale, (with over 3,000 of those units unoccupied), throw in an unknown number of foreclosures, you have a problem that trickles down to just about every business, government entity and resident in our community.

We need to earn money before dollars can be spent and trickle down in the local economy.

Pima County , the City of Tucson, and the towns of Marana, Oro Valley and Sahuarita tax new home buyers in their respective communities through Impact Fees.

Seen by elected officials as an easy source of funding, they waste no time during a good market. Local legislation added tens of thousands of dollars onto the sale price of a new home while creating the impression they were tough on home builders and land developers.

All along, it is the new home buyer who ultimately pays those fees.

The new home buyer doesn’t even get a piece of paper in exchange for paying Impact Fees. Although we don’t see results (i.e. new infrastructure built) for five, 10, or even 20 years out, the toll on the economy is now.

Why can’t Pima County and every municipality within its borders recognize when it’s time to offer concessions to the industry that pays a huge portion of their bills and funds their operations?

They have successfully crafted an image that those associated with the home building industry are “the problem” in our community. I contend that they have lost sight of our overall and beneficial contributions to the community, economy and local charities. They may still, to this day, be having a difficult time understanding the connection.

Now that their cash flow has been cut, will they cut off their own noses to spite their public “face?” Or, will they offer some temporary, reasonable concessions before reaching crisis layoffs?

Let’s see how they tighten their own belts as building permits and related fees continue to fall.

Did I forget to mention they still want to talk about affordable housing?

The roots go back decades and we are reaping today what leaders sowed many years ago. Home building and real estate activities deliver shy of $3b per year to our economy.   Unless and until we diversify away from growth related industries thousands of Tucson residents will be dependent on growth for their livelihood. Is that bad?

 Roger Yohem VP of SAHBA summed it up pretty well. Read the full article HERE:

Anti-business genesis

From a development perspective, a complex maze of reluctant leaders, ingrained employees and citizen resistance are the roots of the anti-business policies coming out of Tucson City Hall.

City leaders “have to direct staff to develop standards and the process for encouraging development,” said a builder. Instead, the “entrenched bureaucracy” won’t allow progress to happen.

“Staffers have their own personal agenda, which I believe, is no growth,” he added. “The result is anarchy.”

A former member of the City Council spoke of the process. If an assignment conflicted with a staff member’s agenda, it was stonewalled. The official confronted employees and a typical response was: “I’ve been here almost 20 years, you’ll be gone in four and I’ll still be here.”
There is no pressure to perform. And many employees are protected by a union.
“They can’t be fired, so many feel bullet-proof. They don’t have to answer to anybody,” said a director of SAHBA.

The city’s anti-business movement “got legs” during the terms of Democratic mayors Tom Volgy (1987-91) and George Miller (1991-99). Both had won council seats in 1977.

“As no-growthers, they started to empower extremists and staff to follow their lead,” the SAHBA director said. “The people they hired decades ago are killing today’s redevelopment efforts. Many have moved up into policy-making positions with their negative attitudes toward progress.”

Regarding the conflicts of business versus neighborhoods, Volgy once said, “It’s hard for business groups to understand what the neighborhoods want, and vice versa. It’s very hard to put themselves in each other’s shoes.”

Yet Volgy’s “Kumbaya” thesis never developed into a serious collaboration. The narrow-minded NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard), BANANA (Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere Near Anything), and NOTE (Not Over There Either) protesters trumped progress.

As the city’s finance director told the council this spring, income from sales taxes will be flat in 2008 for the first time in 30 years because, “There’s no growth.”

No political cover

City leaders lack the political grit to confront the no-growth crusaders. Proposed projects fade away despite the widespread benefits.

“A radical minority dictates city policy,” says a SAHBA director. “There’s a handful of people who claim to represent neighborhoods but they really don’t. It’s always the same two or three people, who have become the city’s de facto planning department.”

One way to restore balance is to give politicians political cover. Development dissenters should get 60 days to prove their claims about traffic, property values, and other concerns.

“Make neighborhoods do what developers are required to do. Pass a mandate that they prepare and pay for their own study,” he said.

Here is a great letter to the editor from Inside Tucson Business. There are so many strong voices in our community that are waiting in the wings to be heard.

This blog was created as a way to let some of those voices be heard.  The traditional media has strong voices as well, the challenge is finding those messages in a crowded world is sometimes difficult. The goal of this blog is to bring those voices front and center.

 

Published on Friday, August 08, 2008

TO: The Editor
FROM: M. L. Ebert
RE: Steve Emerine’s column “Politicians’ failure to act may have already doomed Tucson’s future,” July 28 issue

Steve Emerine again is “spot on” regarding our city government. I remember seeing a computer-generated presentation of the makeup of Tucson’s demographics including political affiliation many years ago. I said then (1980s) that this town did not have the stomach for the diversity an annexation of those folks living north of River Road would give to our community.

We truly are destined to be guided into the future by people with little understanding or appreciation for free enterprise or the importance of protecting property rights.

A good beginning would be to declare city council positions full-time and to pay them enough to attract caring citizens from the private sector. Secondly, move away from partisan elections and look to actual leadership credentials, instead of party affiliations, of individuals running for office.

Regarding annexation: We need to stop the annexation of land; that is gutless. This city needs people to join the municipal government process. Most living in the outlying areas are affected by decisions made by our city council yet have no voice. To entice them, we may have to give them their own seats on the council. If we want to stop the anti-business spirit of this city government and stop the decay, we need to do all of the above.