Proposition 1 is a cruelly regressive tax that would hurt thousands of low- and very low-income homeowners and renters by making their housing even less affordable. There is nothing progressive about it.

The cold numbers, compiled by Housing and Urban Development (HUD), are in the resolution that put this flawed, harmful measure on the ballot.

There are 1,680 renter households in Jefferson County that are mostly low-income and already cost-burdened, meaning they pay more than 30 percent of their income for housing.

Some 875 renter households are extremely low-income and extremely cost-burdened, paying more than 50 percent of income for housing.

There are 3,015 homeowners, mostly low-income, who are cost-burdened; 750 extremely low-income homeowners are extremely cost-burdened.

More people stand on the precipice.

Prop. 1 will hurt all struggling homeowners by making their property taxes rise. It will hurt renters when landlords pass along the tax by raising rents.

It may be easy for economically secure people to sneer at Prop. 1’s costs, but for economically vulnerable households, those higher housing costs represent a week of groceries, firewood or a tank of propane, car repairs so the breadwinner can keep their job. It represents a child’s winter clothing, medicine and electricity.

Thousands of our neighbors do not have extra cash lying around. They will have to cut something to pay Prop. 1’s bill. Prop. 1 will push cost-burdened households into the extremely cost-burdened category, and will push extremely cost-burdened households into homelessness.

Personal stories of fear and dread were presented to the commissioners in testimony and written comments, which ran almost 4-1 against Prop 1. Repeatedly, our neighbors explained how Prop. 1 will be the straw that breaks their back.

To make the suffering of low- and very low-income households certain, Prop. 1 comes on top of the huge increase in property taxes by the state and recent tax increases to fund schools. One citizen in her written comment calculated that the average overall tax increase for 2018 in Port Townsend if Prop. 1 passes will be $750. That is a month’s rent for many people.

But Prop. 1 will help, proponents promise. Yes, it will help some clients of groups promoting the tax, groups funded by voluntary, charitable giving but now wanting government to take from all citizens, willing and unwilling, money to fund their salaries, overhead and programs.

TOO FEW HELPED

The few to be helped by Prop. 1 pale in comparison to the number of people to be harmed. The resolution talks of 189 homeless, a sad but relatively small number. Many of them are really transients passing through. It speaks of 100 homeless children, but that does not mean kids on the street. The number includes children living with relatives, even though they are in fact living in a home.

Projects touted by Homes Now are a dozen new rentals here, 20 elsewhere – so few, they would not impact rental rates. The oft-cited Bellingham fund has only added 40 rentals a year in a very much larger city. Those low numbers are what Bellingham has reported, notwithstanding unsubstantiated claims about leveraging private funds. Whereas poorer Jefferson County has vast undeveloped lands, prosperous, pro-growth Bellingham has one key lacking outside Port Townsend, the very thing needed to make affordable housing possible: sewers.

The long-delayed Port Hadlock/Irondale sewer is widely recognized as the long-term solution to affordable housing, as well as economic opportunity and environmental quality. It is also undisputed that Jefferson County’s unreasonably restrictive and growth-deterring regulations have made building affordable housing virtually impossible. The Cherry Street fiasco shows the answer is not in Port Townsend.

The Hadlock/Irondale sewer system would permit dense, economically efficient, multistory construction and intensive use of low-cost manufactured housing. A 1 percent vacancy rate should be drawing builders to unmet demand; Jefferson County is driving them away.

We could be united in working for a true solution, instead of bitterly divided resisting a regressive tax.

Prop. 1 projects will hit the same obstacles builders now face. By the time the county and grantees siphon off their combined administrative costs, Prop. 1’s impact on the housing market will be inconsequential. Thousands of our struggling neighbors will never see any benefits of Prop. 1, while higher housing costs push them closer to homelessness.

Please, vote no.

Jon Cooke is chair of the Jefferson County Republican Party. He moved to Jefferson County a decade ago and lives with his wife, Sherry, on 4 acres near Quilcene and loves it.