Renaissance Pointe
The News-Sentinel had a story about Renaissance Pointe on the front page of yesterday’s newspaper. This story is a great example of how almost eleven million dollars will be wasted at Renaissance Pointe.
First consider the following facts:
- The US housing bubble burst in 2008.
- There are currently millions of empty homes in the United States.
- Property prices in the US are currently relatively low; especially for houses at the lower end of the scale.
Apparently the State of Indiana, through the Indiana Housing and Community Development Authority, has “approved ten million dollars of tax credits that will allow the construction of 66 rent-to-own homes in Renaissance Pointe.” Further the City of Wayne’s Housing and Neighborhood Development Services will contribute another $640,000 to the project. The City hopes that 66 homes in the $130,000 - $150,000 range will be built.
So here is there plan in a nutshell:
- The State of Indiana will contribute $10,000,000 of tax credits in order to get the 66 homes built. Note a $1 tax credit forgives a taxpayer from paying $1 in Indiana taxes. So basically Indiana is forgiving $10,000,000 of future tax revenue in order to build these 66 homes.
- The City of Wayne’s Housing and Neighborhood Development Services will contribute $640,000 to the project.
In essence the taxpayers will pay $10,640,000 for these 66 houses to be built
The City currently hopes that 66 homes will be built with an average cost of $140,000. Simple math shows that about $9,240,000 worth of houses will be built.
Once the houses are built they will be rented to low income residents of Fort Wayne who otherwise could not afford to buy a $140,000 house. According to the story the 66 families that will eventually be selected to participate in this program will then rent the houses for FIFTEEN years. Then after fifteen years it is hoped that the low income families will still be in residence, that their credit will be much improved, and that they will turn around and buy these rent-to-own homes.
It is hard to believe that ANYONE is dumb enough to think this is a good plan; however, our country (and especially our Government) is full of such idiots.
Is a new house that is built at a cost of $140,000 really a “low income” house?
This is a complete WASTE of taxpayer dollars.
Does ANYONE reading this post think that this project is a good use of taxpayer dollars? Heck, I wonder if even Kevin Knuth could support something this ridiculous…
I seriously think that each and every government affordable housing program in the United States should be cancelled. That would save us tens of billions of dollars.
If families do not have the financial means to buy a house they should rent instead.
Did we learn anything from the housing bust of 2008?
Mike
Wisconsin, now Indiana
In the 2010 elections Republicans won large majorities in the Wisconsin House, the Wisconsin Senate, and they won the Governorship as well. As would be expected they have introduced legislation that reflects their ideology.
The 14 Democratic Senators in Wisconsin fled the state to completely halt most of the legislative process in Wisconsin. I have several phrases that I think accurately describe these fourteen Democratic Senators from Wisconsin:
- Cowards, they lost the last election in a big way and ran away rather then do the jobs they were elected to do.
- Fools, I do not think their actions will help them get re-elected in the future. Yes it will “pump up” their union supporters; however I think most of the electorate; even in liberal Wisconsin, is offended that they ran away from their job. Most Americans would be FIRED if they refused to come to work.
- Jerks, these Democrats are a good example of what is wrong in America. They are pandering to a small portion of their political base rather than doing their jobs.
- Spoiled Children, I have two children, they are eight and nine years old. If my children pulled a stunt like this they would be punished immediately and severely.
Wisconsin
The new Governor of Wisconsin is trying to pass legislation that would make public employees pay more towards their retirement, more towards their health care, and remove most of their collective bargaining rights.
The truth of the matter is that Government employees have not felt the effects of this recession near as much as private sector workers. Further, the truth of the matter is that public employees should pay SIGNIFICANTLY more towards their retirement plans and health care. That being said I am not necessarily in favor of abolishing their collective bargaining rights.
There are a lot of studies put out by liberals that conclude that public sector workers are under compensated in comparison to private sector workers. There are a lot of studies put out by conservatives that conclude that public workers are over compensated in comparison to private sector workers. I tend to believe the conservative studies in this case; the liberal studies conclude that public employees require far more education than private sector jobs and I tend to think they exaggerate the necessity for public employees to have advanced college degrees.
I think we should ignore the studies put out by both conservatives and liberals. I think that one would have to conclude that public sector workers are over compensated because the public sector compensation could easily be lowered by at LEAST 10% and those jobs would still be filled and filled fast. Compensation should be determined by supply and demand. I believe that we have a structural unemployment problem; I believe that there are a lot of unemployed people who would happily take public sector jobs and they would take those jobs for significantly less compensation and they would likely do a competent job.
I have heard many public sector union officials claim that if public sector compensation were lowered that the public sector would lose valuable employees and not be able to replace them. I have to wonder if ANY of these union officials or public sector workers understand how many Americans are looking for work? I further wonder if they realize how many workers have completely given up looking for work? The average public sector worker in Wisconsin makes between $80,000 and $90,000 per year in total compensation.
Does anyone reading this blog think that if these workers all received a 10% compensation cut that these public workers would quit their jobs and go looking for work in the private sector?
If they did quit their jobs does anyone reading this blog think that there would not be a large number of qualified applicants who would apply to fill these vacancies and happily take jobs paying 10% less than what public sector workers currently make?
Mike Sylvester
Some Political Advice for Teachers
The state’s teachers are outraged, outraged I tell you, about the current legislation being considered by the state legislature. The union has them worked into a frenzy and convinced that the end of public education is nigh. But here’s the thing that irks me about the entire situation and something each and everyone one of you teachers need to ask yourself:
If protecting the educational status quo and the teachers union was that damn important then why did you vote Republican?
I’m sure a few of you out there that are now so upset did understand what was at stake during the last election cycle but the majority likely had no clue. You probably voted Republican because you didn’t want “teh gays” to start marryin’ each other. So just in case you still don’t get it let me help you out.
The Republican party, and especially governor Mitch Daniels, would eliminate your union ass tomorrow if they could. They will do everything in their power to systematically weaken the union’s position in order to enact what they think is positive change in the educational community. I’m not even going to debate the merits of their position or the union’s - I’m simply stating a fact.
And if you are that hell bent pro-teachers union and didn’t realize this then you are a fool and you are going to get the government you deserve. Writing letters and calling representatives now isn’t going to do a damn thing at this point. What you’re witnessing is a political battle (R’s vs D’s) and has absolutely nothing to do with the merits of the individual bills. The time for you to make a difference isn’t when you read about it in the paper; no, the fix is in by then bubba.
The election booth was where you could’ve waged your battle but you didn’t and now you are going to lose and lose big…
A Quick Thought On School Vouchers
The teachers unions are up in arms about a variety of legislation that is sure to “destroy public education once and for all”. Many of them seem to actually believe the hyperbole being pumped out by the union. Make no mistake, the governor is no friend of unions and would like to see their position weakened. But the unions have done a pretty fine job destroying themselves the last 10 years and seem to offer no real alternative to fixing the problems that urban districts face.
Having said that, the idea that the current voucher legislation would do anything positive is asinine. First let’s just start by saying that the private schools don’t want the money if it comes with restrictions. Do you think Canterbury wants to admit a bunch of voucher-holding transfers from FWCS? Hardly as they charge the fees they do to keep the riff raff out - that really is the point of private school after all.
Second, the vouchers won’t be enough to meet the tuition needs for private schools. So what will happen is a bunch of cronies of state government officials will create new private schools that will loot the new voucher system without improving academics.
Lastly, vouchers won’t help because more money won’t help. School choice isn’t the problem - parents are. Lousy parents produce lousy students and there isn’t a damn thing the best teachers can do to solve that problem despite what you might have seen in some lame B-movie. Bringing in an administration with the spine to impose discipline and remove problem students from the classroom and the schools is the first thing that needs to happen…
State Senate Licenses Ginseng (the era of smaller government is just around the corner)
The state legislature has important work to do. They unemployment fund is bankrupt and the state, in general, is bankrupt due to future pension obligations that are woefully underfunded. However, the State Senate still found the time to debate the need to license ginseng harvesters, dealers and growers.
Thanks to this bill you now must be licensed to grow or deal ginseng - I’m not kidding. And you can be fined $500 and/or spend 60 days in jail for harvesting ginseng without a license. Again, I’m not kidding. The sad part is that this bill passed 44-6 in the Republican controlled senate. I’m also quite certain that each and every one of those voting YEA would try to convince you that they are small-government conservatives. They are not.
If it’s any consolation, newly elected State Senator Jim Banks did vote against the legislation. Maybe there is hope afterall…
HB 1450
One of the very important issues the Indiana Legislature has to address this session is the bankrupt Indiana Employment fund. I have posted a great deal about this topic over the last couple of years. To make a long story short the fund had a large surplus in 2000 and so the Indiana Unemployment taxes that businesses pay were decreased and benefits received by the unemployed were increased. That caused the fund to operate at a deficit since 2000. Currently the Indiana Unemployment Fund is two billion dollars in the red and expected to keep operating in the red for a long time. No real steps were undertaken to fix this problem until the Unemployment tax on Hoosier business owners was increased starting on 1/1/11.
Legislative Survey
Just a few days ago I received a constituent survey from State Representative Bob Morris (84th District). Here are the questions asked along with my answers including brief commentary.
Feel free to share your thoughts and answers to these questions.
1. Do you support a state constitutional amendment defining marriage as a union between one man and one woman?
No. I would prefer that Indiana move in the opposite direction and propose legislative changes that allow for marriage equality. There are a few different ways of achieving this and I have my favorite, but I will not get into all of those details in this post. Read more
Big tax increase coming January 1st, 2011 to Indiana Employers
It has been awhile since I have posted about unemployment insurance in the state of Indiana. Many of my past posts on this topic have drawn a huge number of comments. I plan on doing several posts on the topic in the next month or two. Consider the following facts:
- In 2000 Indiana had a surplus of 1.6 billion dollars in the Unemployment Fund.
- Today the Indiana Unemployment Fund owes the Federal Unemployment Fund almost 1.7 billion dollars.
So in a ten year period the Indiana Unemployment Fund has paid out 3.3 BILLION dollars more than it has taken in. Every year since 2001 the fund has paid out more in benefits than it has taken in.
Tomorrow will be a good day for America if…
I am excited about tomorrow’s election. I truly hope that the “Tea Party” helps elect a large number of Americans who believe in smaller and more responsible government. Here is what I am hoping for tomorrow:
1. I truly hope the Republicans gain a majority in the US House of Representatives. The last four years under a Democratic majority in the House under Nancy Pelosi has been a disaster. The Democrats added five trillion dollars to the National Debt in four years; this is astounding and future generations will have to pay for this forever. The older I get the more I realize that “gridlock” is good.
2. I hope that Harry Reid (D) is no longer the Senator from Nevada. He has been a horrible majority leader and has served too long.
3. I hope that Rand Paul (R) is the next Senator of Kentucky. The liberal media has developed a pathological hatred of the man and thrown everything at him that they can.
4. I hope that a large number of small Government conservatives are elected as Republicans. I then hope that they are not co-opted by the Republican establishment.
5. I hope that turnout tomorrow is higher than it was in 2006. More Americans need to learn what is going on in this country and they need to vote. Both Parties are running up the National Debt and this needs to stop.
6. I hope that far fewer people vote for a Party ticket. Voting for all of the members of one Party is just stupid and I truly wish people would stop doing it. It is absurd to think that all of the members of one Party are better than all of their opponents across the board.
7. Updated on Election Day at 1:28 PM. I hope that Lisa Murkowski is no longer the Senator from Alaska. Her antics affter her loss in the Republican Primary are deplorable and show that she is too attched to her position as US Senator.
Mike
