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Hill’s leaders in Olympia diss rent control, float idea for affordable housing above Seattle Central garage

IMG_4776In a year when much of Seattle’s political energy will be channeled into the presidential election, Capitol Hill’s representatives in Olympia came to the neighborhood Saturday to talk about 2016 in the Washington Legislature and issues familiar — education funding — and issues new — building affordable housing above the Seattle Central parking garage?

Education
Technically, the first bill passed by the state legislature this year did address the state’s looming $3.5 billion shortfall on teacher pay. It just came nowhere close to resolving it. The measure creates a task force to study education funding sources and punts the final decision making to the 2017 legislature.

“A disappointing excuse for a plan” is how Sen. Jaime Pedersen described the bill Saturday during the 43rd Legislative District town hall on Capitol Hill at the Erickson Theatre.

In its 2012 McCleary decision, the State Supreme Court ruled that the state was violating the constitution by underfunding public education. When lawmakers took too long to come up with a plan last year, the court started fining the state $100,000 a day. Having to do battle in a Republican-dominated Senate, Pedersen was pessimistic the legislature could meet its obligations, saying the state Supreme Court may have to create the plan itself.

“We are going to have to raise taxes in the next biennium or else not comply with the court’s order,” Pedersen said.

Not helping matters was last week’s lower-than-expected state revenue forecast for 2017-2019. While the effective short fall will barely make a dent in a $40 billion biennial budget, it gives lawmakers even less wiggle room to meet its education spending obligations.

Homelessness and affordability
There are plenty of other issues for lawmakers to work through in their final few weeks in session. House Speaker Frank Chopp, who joined Pedersen on Saturday, said he helped secure funds for the 19th and Madison shelter run by Peace for the Street by Kids from the Streets. Meanwhile, Pedersen started leading a work group in Olympia to take a closer look at youth homelessness in Seattle.

Chopp is a longtime proponent of creating affordable housing by building it on public land using the state’s Housing Trust Fund. Inspired by a proposal at North Seattle College, Chopp floated the idea of building affordable student housing above the Seattle Central College’s E Pine parking garage.

“There is lots of state land out there,” he said. “The best way to control rent is to own the property.”

While the Seattle City Council is trying to persuade the legislature to lift the state ban on rent control as a means to creating more affordable housing, not even the liberal 43rd District reps are sold on the idea. “I don’t think the answer to increasing the housing stock is putting artificial regulations on (property owners),” Pedersen said.

However, Pedersen is a fan of movies filmed in Washington state and spoke about his plan to extend the state’s film tax incentive program for two more year. It’s a change from 2015 for Pedersen who last year told the town hall crowd he wasn’t in favor of giving handouts to Hollywood.

Two gun control measures — one initiative and one bill — are up for consideration this year. HB 2793 would establish a task for to study how to curtail suicides, including new rules for the safe storage of firearms. Last week the Alliance for Gun Responsibility announced it was starting a campaign for a ballot initiative that would allow law enforcement to take guns from people who are deemed a danger to themselves or others. Chopp and Pedersen said they support both measures.

Of course, Capitol Hill’s Olympia delegation was happy to see that state senators (narrowly) voted down legislation to change a new policy guaranteeing the right of the state’s transgender people to use bathrooms and locker rooms of the gender with which they identify.

Rep. Brady Walkinshaw said he was unable to make the town hall due to a prior engagement, but assured CHS he was not letting his Congressional campaign get in the way of his legislative duties.

Walkinshaw said he was hopeful the Senate would pass a bill he has worked on to make it easier for people coming out of prison to find jobs. The program would allow judges to issue a certificate that proves ex-prisoners have fulfilled the conditions of a sentence.

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le.gai.savant
le.gai.savant
8 years ago

Let’s proof those quotes! I don’t think Chopp said, “The best way to control rent is to one the property.” I’m guessing he said, “own the property”,meaning, public owned housing is a better way to create affordable housing than rent control.

And if you look at cities that have rent control (SF and NY) they have the very highest rent, though rent control does indeed provide a break for people who’ve been there a long time (regardless of the income of the renter), at the expense of newcomers.

Greg M
Greg M
8 years ago

What rent control does is make life better for the people who are currently in the apartments, at least for a short time. It forces building owners to balance their portfolios with high-priced luxury rentals to get the return they need to attract investment (most apartment buildings in this country are owned by REITs which are publicly traded).

Over time, the landlords will only invest the bare minimum to maintain those rent controlled buildings, though, which can become a problem for the tenants.

And, it’s not a solution for newcomers since the apartments are held onto tightly by those already in them. In NY’s system, children would literally inherit below-market-rate apartments and so they would never get put on the open market.

Ryan on Summit
Ryan on Summit
8 years ago

How about we tear down the parking garage and put housing there, Mr. Chopp?

poncho
poncho
8 years ago

I like the idea of affordable housing over the existing garage in concept. But it is by no means an economical solution, it would be a rather significant feat of engineering and the more expensive an affordable housing project, the fewer units provided. It would seem to me we would get a lot closer to addressing the huge affordable housing need in the region if we focused on building as many units as possible with our given pool of money.

jonathan
jonathan
8 years ago

How about keep the parking garage, remove the cars, put up partitions and convert it to a shelter village. Hire some of the residents to staff it. Don’t put Scott Morrow in charge though.

Howard
Howard
8 years ago

Let’s not kid ourselves! The Seattle City Council’s vote to ask the state legislature to reconsider local rent control was a meaningless gesture, not unlike the Republican Party’s attempts to repeal Obamacare at a national level.

Mayor Murray and most members of the Seattle City Council are smart enough to understand that rent control doesn’t work and is harmful to cities. But they needed to appease certain voting blocs with a public gesture of political showmanship.

By voting for rent control, without any chance that their votes would have an effect, members of the Seattle City Council played make believe. They gave Sawant her applause line and appeased her supporters. By voting yes, they defused the issue, and sent it off to Olympia for burial.