Word: condo
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...look at who gains from 1-2-3. Fred Meyer, who calls himself the author of Prop 1-2-3, may certainly be motivated by a personal ideology linking freedom with owning a condo, but most other supporters ($56,000 strong, according to the 1988 State Campaign Finance Report) are motivated by profit. Not surprisingly, among the list of financial contributors who helped get this condo bill on the ballot are some of Cambridge's most notorious landlords...
Realtors like Meyer stand to gain quite a bit financially, since 1-2-3 would let the new condo owners sell their apartments back when they are no longer restricted by rent control. And owners of these previously rentcontrolled apartments also stand to gain because they would be able to rent at market prices, or resell for an amount considerably higher than the original purchase price...
...Housing Authority only subsidizes lowcost apartments) about 80 percent of those subsidized tenants now live in rent-controlled apartments. With a law like 1-2-3, any of these tenants seeking rent-controlled apartments would be left out in the cold. Extra rent payments cannot compete with condo profits...
Unbelievably, this part of the bill claims that condo sales would generate new property tax revenues which could be isolated from other tax revenues and placed in a trust fund for subsidies and rental housing construction. This section contains several misconceptions...
Secondly, those who owner-occupy a house or condo are eligible for a property tax exemption, making it very unclear how much, if any, new tax revenue the condo sales would generate. And it is questionable whether 1-2-3 backers really gave Proposition 3 any thought. Even if funds were available and earmarking funds were legally possible, could they design a citywide subsidy program without creating a new city agency? Could they direct the city to build new low-cost rental programs...