Answering Mr. Strech from the NSBIA

Sacramento News & Review published an interview with the CEO of the North State Building Industry Association (NSBIA).

Here's my answer:

“Let’s just deregulate (no CEQA!) like Texas” is a constant refrain from these jokers. But the real problem is the cost of land, not the regulations. Studies demonstrate 80% of the cost increase comes from land costs. Lumber and labor is *not* more expensive in CA.

Oh yes, and building fees in CA have to be higher because if you don’t collect the money in fees in CA, Prop 13 tax rates are so low and unyielding you won’t be able to maintain the infrastructure. That’s right, Texas doesn’t have Prop 13 property tax limitations. You might remember Butte County flirted with bankruptcy because it had building fees lower than its infrastructure costs (roads, schools, fire & police, etc.) during a building boom a few years ago. Prop 13 had Butte County in a vise.

NSBIA is really just parroting some right-wing meme, not really interested in solving problems here. Besides building fees, the really big problem is land speculation. Land speculators (“developers”) can buy ag land cheap ($2K/acre in N. Natomas floodplain) then, after they get permission to develop, sell it dear to builders ($200K/acre to Winncrest homes). That egregious 10,000% profit not only accrues exclusively to private benefit, it’s even tax sheltered if the speculators swap for income-producing real estate like shopping centers or apartments. Quite the racket.

It’s no accident that Sacramento has the “Tsakopoulos Galleria” rather than the “Sacramento Galleria” — meeting space next to the central library. We gave all the money to Angelo! Plutocrats! Gotta love ’em!

In Germany, the developers have to sell outlying land to local government at the ag land price, then re-purchase it at the development land price. All the benefit accrues to the public. And German universities charge no tuition, they have single-payer healthcare, and the arts budget for the City of Berlin exceeds the National Endowment for the Arts for the U.S. of A.

NSBIA is strictly distracting from these inconvenient truths with its “all regulation is bad” line of talk. Perhaps we should ask Mr. Strech which toxic food he would feed his children. After all regulations are bad, right? Back in the good ol’ unregulated days, the big meat packers were fine shipping botulism with their product.