"Unprecedented tax increases"?
Feb. 3rd, 2014 04:19 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jducoeur posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
davis_squareI just got a scare robo-call, apparently from alderman Tony Lafuente, asking me to come to tomorrow night's aldermen's meeting because of the "unprecedented tax increases" in Somerville. Sounds like he's trying to get a mob with torches and pitchforks there, but I haven't the foggiest notion what he's talking about. Anybody have info?
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no subject
Date: 2014-02-03 09:25 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-02-03 09:27 pm (UTC)Here's an article from the Patch in early January. (http://somerville.patch.com/groups/politics-and-elections/p/davis-square-restaurants-see-monster-tax-increase-say-aldermen)
no subject
Date: 2014-02-03 09:28 pm (UTC)http://somerville.patch.com/groups/politics-and-elections/p/public-hearing-on-property-taxes-scheduled-for-feb-4
no subject
Date: 2014-02-03 09:45 pm (UTC)Thanks for the pointers...
no subject
Date: 2014-02-03 10:29 pm (UTC)Somerville Sees Decrease in Property Tax Rate
no subject
Date: 2014-02-03 10:43 pm (UTC)Overall, it sounds like a calm discussion of the issue would be in order -- tax rises *are* going to happen when assessments go up, but if the city's finances are decently solid, it may be time to take the business rate down a notch in response, similar to the way it sounds like they've done for residents, to keep the burden balanced...
no subject
Date: 2014-02-04 03:12 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-02-04 01:17 pm (UTC)But it's what I meant by "Harvard Square-ization" -- if the landlords aren't sensitive to the neighborhood and the kinds of business that make Davis what it is, it could lead to only relatively upscale (and bland) stores being able to afford to rent there any more. That's a potentially nasty tragedy of the commons, and probably *is* something to discuss as a community...
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Date: 2014-02-04 04:22 pm (UTC)The problem is felt by businesses that aren't seeing as much of an increase in profits as the "average" business is. Additionally, the increase in "average" business profit is significantly due to changes in the mix of businesses, the mix includes more upscale businesses. What ultimately happens is that downscale businesses start to get squeezed by the increasing costs of the location.
if the landlords aren't sensitive to the neighborhood and the kinds of business that make Davis what it is
The landlords will rent to whoever is willing to pay the most.
As for avoiding Harvard Square-ization, all of this is driven by the increasing presence of affluent people. How do you propose to drive out the yuppies? Worse, "We have met the enemy, and he is us."
no subject
Date: 2014-02-04 05:07 pm (UTC)I don't disagree that the problem may be unavoidable, but I live in hope...
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Date: 2014-02-05 03:27 am (UTC)Clearly there are people who buy the things for sale in Harvard Square's stores.
The problem is that while you like the look and feel of Davis Square, there's no mechanism for you to contribute money to support it. The only way people can support it is by buying things there. And clearly, if the stores are replaced with more expensive stores, and people buy at the new stores, they're willing to support the new stores more than the old ones -- because they're paying more. I suppose you could arrange for a tax levy on the houses in the neighborhood for some sort of "stabilization fund" that would subsidize the leases of "old style" businesses in the Square.
No, not true
Date: 2014-02-05 02:56 am (UTC)No, I don't agree that this is a problem other places would love to have. It's a real, heartbreaking issue that people care deeply about. A lot of people are terrified of losing everything they made with their own two hands.
That said, yes the Robo Call sounds like it was clumsy. It's probably easy to forget this isn't on everyone's minds.
no subject
Date: 2014-02-05 03:22 am (UTC)You'd like to think that when you buy a piece of dirt, you've got a permanent grip on it. But it isn't true, there are a lot of things that could go wrong, and society doesn't issue that sort of guarantee. And things are even less secure with things that one does not officially own.
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Date: 2014-02-05 03:57 am (UTC)And when the same thing seems to be going wrong for a lot of people at the same time, that tends to be when people start picking up their pitchforks.
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Date: 2014-02-21 04:09 pm (UTC)I gather that San Francisco has strict rent control, but the difference between the market value of apartments and the rent controlled value has become so high that people are engaging in many devices to escape rent control, and gentrification is proceeding anyway.
In the long run, it's difficult to stop. The only political mechanism that would work reliably is to make the area less desirable to live in for people who are more affluent than those who live there already. Politicians can do that if they work at it. Mob violence doesn't work very well because there isn't a specific set of actors who are driving the process, the culprits are all the people who are willing to pay "more money" to live there.
no subject
Date: 2014-02-03 11:47 pm (UTC)In other words, if all property value assessments in the city went up by the same percentage, nobody's tax bills would change. (Of course it would never happen exactly like that -- Davis might go up more than other neighborhoods. But this principle would still tend to temper the increases.)
no subject
Date: 2014-02-05 03:20 am (UTC)To a degree. But look at it the other way: If property values go down, they don't raise the tax rate by exactly enough to keep the tax take constant, because the constituents would riot. In the recession, Somerville lost a lot of income, and they'd like to get their income level back up toward where it was before the recession.
no subject
Date: 2014-02-06 05:49 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-02-03 09:31 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-02-03 11:00 pm (UTC)communication about what's going on. Maybe "are you a homeowner or business owner? Did changes in your tax bill this quarter make you want to talk about asessing and property tax rates?"
might have been a more informative question. I'm guessing LaFuente is particularly concerned about it and wants to make sure there's enough turnout at the meeting, and also wants to be able to tell his constituents what he did when the next election season rolls around.
There were several weeks of press promoting how great it was that the city had lowered residential tax _rates_ and patting themselves on the back, until
the January tax bills rolled into peoples' mailboxes, and I think that in the Somerville Journal they covered both the back-patting and the backlash and mentioned the time
and date of the meeting that was the BoA's response to the subject. I think there is a lot of concern both about the hit businesses are taking, and about some peoples' sense that
assessed values had shifted a lot and not necessarily equally or fairly. (For instance, I'm a Tufts area homeowner and my actual real estate tax amount is roughly on par
with last year and my assessed value went up a hair, after seeing a somewhat more dramatic adjustment a few years back, while Union Square area homeowners
and some Davis folks report that their assessed value is suddenly quite high -- not necessarily out of whack with what they could sell it for, but in the past the assessors
were kind of intentionally lowballing things when the market started getting out of control. Maybe other people were more lowballed all along and I'd already been adjusted sometime recently? Maybe I'm due to get screwed next year? Maybe Union Square got hit harder by the assessors? Who knows.)
no subject
Date: 2014-02-03 11:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-02-04 02:29 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-02-04 06:45 pm (UTC)