I do not favor giving government more money to “help” a problem that it created. A government that has hit us with not one, not two, but three property tax increases this year alone.

The state just increased property taxes to pay for schools. Increases in property valuations of 20 percent will also raise our taxes. And now a levy to increase taxes to make houses available for the working poor?

Look at what the government agencies want. Jefferson County Public Utility District (PUD) wants $3,700 from a poor family in Irondale to connect to an existing water meter. Then there’s the county permit center that wants architectural engineered plans to build a 10-by-20 house and $2,600 in initial permit fees. And $275 to test the potability of existing PUD water. And $275 for a parking spot when there’s no street. Oh, OK, then $875 for a permit to build a street?

All for someone who works part-time as a dishwasher.

Let’s take a look at how our government, with legislation often written by lobbyists, takes all hope away from the working poor – and the soon-to-be poor middle class.

Ethanol: a government-subsidized food-for-fuel program. It takes 1.5 gallons of gasoline to make a gallon of ethanol. This product has a 90-day shelf life, will separate out and cause engine damage to all small engines and older cars. It will also soak up moisture, causing all kinds of problems for boaters.
Cash for Clunkers: Takes older used cars off the market. Destroys these cars so there will be no spare parts for the poor.

TAXES AND THE FED

Washington state sales tax increases on gasoline. (A recent study says that over 60 percent of long-term unemployed is a result of lack of personal transportation.)
Subsidies for solar energy: Tesla receives $20,000 in government subsidies for each car it manufactures. The government also gives a $10,000 tax credit to the wealthy for buying these $80,000 cars. Subsidies for the poor to buy a car? Right.
Solar-panel subsidies are so great that an upper-middle-class homeowner can have the taxpayers and PUD utility customers pay for their system. After seven to 10 years, these homeowners can be “off the grid” while the poor see their utility bills go up because of a dwindling customer base.
The government gave the power to “print” money to the private banking cartel called the Federal Reserve in 1913. Since then, the dollar has lost 96 percent of its value. The value of your house is not increasing, the value of the dollar is decreasing. The Fed “buys” up debt by creating money out of thin air. Congress loves it. They have no desire to ever pay off the debt when they can have the Fed pick up the Treasuries (read “The Creature from Jekyll Island: A 2nd Look at the Federal Reserve”). The government (with taxpayer approval) raises the minimum wage. Let’s go after McDonald’s. McDonald’s says, “No problem. We’ll install computer screens and lay off those workers taking orders.” Unfortunately, the small businesses don’t have that option.

Congress told us that NAFTA would bring jobs to America. Ross Perot said that we’d hear “a giant sucking sound” as we lost jobs. The news media laughed at him.

A recent county consultant was quoted as saying that the GMA (Growth Management Act) was the number-one reason for the affordable-housing shortage. Have we fixed the GMA yet?
The permit system fails the working poor. We now work for the bureaucrats. They don’t work for us. (It’s all about the money.) The working poor fear the government. (They especially fear the county permit system.)

Just as Californians move here for lower housing costs and no income tax, we must educate our youth on where they can move to find affordable housing. Hint: It ain’t Jefferson County.

An affordable house in Jefferson County would be $70,000. To do that, we’d have to wave all permit fees for those making less than $50,000, provide blueprints for 400-square-foot homes with upstairs sleeping accommodations, allow rainwater collection systems, gray water systems, composting toilets, wood-burning stoves, and $300 solar systems for basic electricity.

Allow these homes to be built on 25-by-100-foot lots. (One study says that the working poor pay 40 percent of their income for utilities.)

Hal Lindsey said we “can live 40 days without food, about three days without water, about eight minutes without air, but only for one second without hope.”

John Jamison is a retired math teacher, and small-businesses owner. He also is an member of the Irondale Church and is a financier of homes for the working poor in Jefferson County.