An article in the local daily has the headline, “Affordable Housing a Big Winner at City Council Meeting.” That is because the city is going to raise taxes 1.5 pennies per $100 of valuation. But not to worry. The very, very few, teeny-tiny dollars coming out of household budgets will be used to pay for police and fire – not any rah-rah. Council will use other magic stashes to subsidize housing costs because builders can’t recover costs by building houses and apartments people with Asheville jobs can afford.
Also present at the budget hearing were members of the Asheville-Area Chamber of Commerce. They wanted more money, but members of city council accused them of being bad partners. That means, they did not want to part with a portion of the increased Tourism Development Authority tax. If I read this right, the message is you have to give government money if you want to get any back.
