Gubna Corzine promised upon taking office to create or rehab 100,000 new units of affordable housing in the garden state, as
I received today an article from the Newark Star Ledger with the headline:
Corzine: Cost could hinder affordable housing effort
Advocates say they're frustrated with governor over lack of plan
Guess how many units have been created by the Gubna, go ahead guess. If you guessed zero, nada, zippo, zilch, bubkes, the big donut, you’re correct. In fact, the Gubna has increased the cost of housing, just like his predecessor James “I’m a Gay American” McGreevey, by passing idiotic laws that make it more expensive to do business in NJ. The most obvious of which is the 1% hike in the sales tax. Besides clobbering the poor, this tax makes everything landlords have to buy more expensive, so they have to raise the rent (if they can) to cover increased expenses.
His predecessor passed several revisions to the laws governing the handling of security deposits, and window guards. Window guards are designed to prevent toddlers from falling out of windows when their crack-head mothers aren’t paying attention. The law is so complicated that even PhD English professors cannot unders
The security deposit law is designed to keep landlords from taking tenant’s security deposits when they are not entitled to. A well meaning law of course, but only dishonest landlords do this anyway. The pros know and obey the law. We actually like giving back security deposits, because it means the tenant has done everything they are supposed to, paid all outs
Because the law places onerous administrative guidelines on the handling of security deposits, it has become much less profitable for banks to handle these accounts. The result is that savings banks, the ones who normally pay the most interest, just got out of the business, leaving only the large commercial banks. Since this business is less profitable, the banks pay very little interest. My accounts, currently at Commerce Bank, only pay 0.75%. Compare that to money market funds that pay around 5%. The law mandates that the money must be in one of these accounts, so tenants literally can’t earn any interest on their money. Thanks McGreevey. It also raises the administrative costs, because large landlords need more manpower to deal with the related clerical tasks.
I have come up with several suggestions to help make rental housing more affordable in
1) Lower property taxes for multifamily buildings of 5 units and up.
2) Drop the fire-sprinkler nightmare law pushed by none other than the fire-sprinkler installation union lobby.
3) Eliminate (redundant/burdensome/all) inspection fees, such as DCA 5-year inspection fee, non-lead free unit fee, municipal inspection fees, Certificate of Occupancy and fire alarm inspection fees.
4) Give additional tax incentives (besides depreciation) for landlords who renovate their properties.
5) Simplify security deposit and window guard laws made more complicated by the McGreevey administration.
6) Fast track approvals for new multi-family developments (or rehabs) that meet certain criteria.
7) Provide grants and/or tax incentives for landlords who install energy or water saving improvements such as furnaces, insulation, windows, toilets, showerheads, sub-meters, etc.
8) Provide an energy/utility assis
9) Give property tax rebates to the landlords, who actually pay the taxes, as opposed to the tenants.
10) Speed up the eviction process. Eliminate eviction blackouts.
11) Roll back the state sales tax increase.
12) End government corruption.
13) Make sure the Gubna doesn’t survive his next car crash.
14) Elect a Republican to the Governor’s office next time.
