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Prop 13 is a major component. Property tax grows at below inflation, whereas commercial tax grows at the pace of the local economy. So, if you zone housing, ev
by gregable 9y ago
Prop 13 is a major component. Property tax grows at below inflation, whereas commercial tax grows at the pace of the local economy.
So, if you zone housing, eventually the cost of servicing that housing exceeds the tax revenues from it, and there is little you can do to avoid that process. If you zone businesses, you get sales tax and similar revenue from the workers. Financially, it's best to let your neighboring municipalities build homes for your workers.
There is also a backlash from locals who see higher density housing as the core cause attributed to most local issues: traffic, crime, overtaxed city services, etc. This is mostly an incorrect perception, but it's a persistent one.
These combine to prevent zoning for housing.
- tstegart 9y agoThe property tax seems like a likelier answer. NIMBY-ism always strikes me as a weak answer. At least in the midwest, if one city won't build it the city next door will. Seems odd (and in my view, unlikely) that every single city bands together and can resits the market forces of the most powerful companies on the face of the planet. I'd have thought a municipality would have cracked by now and let everyone build huge residential buildings and used that population growth to fund everything else. Seems every weird no municipality isn't building houses like crazy.
- DrScump 9y agoProperty tax grows at below inflation Property tax can go up 2% per year. Inflation has been below that for many years.