Not at first. It's fixing an accounting rule that draws distinctions between equivalent cash-flow situations. A: City owns an office building with a $1MM/yr fa

Not at first. It's fixing an accounting rule that draws distinctions between equivalent cash-flow situations. A: City owns an office building with a $1MM/yr fair-market rent, which it uses for administration. B: City collects $1MM/yr rent from their office building, and pays $1MM/yr to rent out a different building for their administration to use. If you net out the imputed rent in situation A, then it looks like the administration is $1MM/yr cheaper than it actually is.