凍結 天然氣 火車

I guess socialism is alive and well in American. In this article San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee seems to think that poor people have a God given right to live in a home that they can't afford and have rich people pay for it.

And as Mayor of San Francisco he wants to steal $20 to $50 million a year from rich people to pay poor people to live in the city.

Source

Lee proposal backs middle-class housing in S.F. John Coté Tuesday, May 22, 2012 There may finally be a solution to helping middle-class San Franciscans who cannot afford to buy a home of their own in the city. Mayor Ed Lee on Tuesday will announce plans to create the city's first dedicated funding stream for moderate-income and affordable housing, generating $20 million to $50 million a year for 30 years. The plan not only would help provide middle-income residents with up to $100,000 in down payment assistance, but it also is designed to stimulate market-rate development and fund 4,500 units of affordable housing. Lee, a former tenants' rights lawyer, is pushing for a comprehensive housing proposal as he grapples with two problems: one old, the other relatively new. The first is families and moderate-income residents being priced out of the city, something that has been happening for decades. The other is Gov. Jerry Brown's move earlier this year to eliminate redevelopment agencies, which had been the primary source of San Francisco's affordable housing. The city has spent $47 million per year over the past 10 years on below-market-rate housing production, with the majority of that coming from redevelopment, according to the mayor's office. The money for Lee's plan would come from a 0.2 percentage-point increase in the transfer tax on the sale of properties valued over $1 million, diverting 0.6 percent of the current tax levied on hotel stays and tapping future property tax revenue that would have gone to the city's now-defunct redevelopment agency, according to documents from the mayor's office. The proposal is slated to go before voters in November. The plan, to be submitted to the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday after about four months in the making, has trade-offs, including lowering by 20 percent the amount of on-site affordable housing that San Francisco requires private developers to build, expanding upward the income range of who qualifies for affordable housing and capping city fees on developers. Under the proposal - crafted with the input of private developers, affordable housing advocates, real estate agents and others - the city would start what Lee is calling a "Housing Trust Fund" with about $20 million combined from the proposed tax sources. The amount is projected to grow to $50 million in year 12 of the 30-year deal, according to documents from the Mayor's Office of Housing. The housing funds would be capped at $50 million for the remainder of the agreement, with any additional revenue from those sources flowing to the city's main spending account. The plan was still in flux late Monday and had uneven support among those who worked on it. "We're hopeful," Peter Cohen, co-director of the Council of Community Housing Organizations, said as last-minute talks continued. "It's all down to the devilish details." Ken Cleaveland, vice president for public policy at the Building Owners and Managers Association, which represents commercial real estate interests, said: "We have real serious problems with it." "We are very much in opposition to yet another bite at the transfer tax apple," Cleaveland said. Under the mayor's plan, the 0.2 percentage-point hike in the transfer tax, currently 1.5 percent to 2.5 percent depending on property value, is projected to generate an average of $13 million a year. That represents the majority of funding for at least the first seven years of the effort. Other funding sources include property tax revenue that would have gone to the city's redevelopment agency to pay off bonds used to finance affordable housing and infrastructure. The agency was spending about $46 million a year on debt service, city officials said. Now that the redevelopment agency's functions have been absorbed by the city, the city is using that money to pay off the debt. As those bonds are retired, the city will channel portions of that property tax revenue to the housing fund, but the bulk of that money won't become available until year eight of the deal. The housing fund would also receive $5 million a year from the hotel tax that had gone to the redevelopment agency to replace senior housing lost when the Yerba Buena and Moscone Convention centers were built. "Our only beef is with the funding mechanism," said Cleaveland, who wants to see the money come from a broad-based tax like a sales or parcel tax on all property owners. "We can't continue to put every social responsibility on the backs of commercial property owners in this city," he said. The transfer tax component may still be amended before the plan is put to voters. Lee is proposing two ballot measures: an amendment to the City Charter to set aside funds for the housing program and a separate measure to raise the transfer tax. Tuesday is the deadline to submit the Charter amendment to the Board of Supervisors, where support from six of 11 supervisors is needed to place it on the ballot. The mayor has until June 19 to put the transfer tax measure on the ballot, where it would need a simple majority to pass. The housing program is counting on either it or "(another) funding source," according to documents from the mayor's office. The mayor's office is also working on a safety valve to scuttle the proposal if voters approve the set-aside for affordable housing but not the tax measure to fund it, Lee's staff said. If voters approve the plan, it's projected to fund 4,500 of the 9,000 affordable housing units already approved in development plans for the Hunters Point Naval Shipyard, Transbay Transit Center area and elsewhere, according to the mayor's office. If approved, the changes would take effect 30 days after the vote is certified. It would also add $15 million to an existing down payment assistance loan program projected to provide loans for about 1,000 first-time home buyers over the next 30 years. Cost reductions for developers could mean more than 1,000 additional units of market-rate units over the life of the deal, according to the mayor's office. Housing Trust Fund Mayor Ed Lee's 30-year plan would channel $20 million to $50 million a year into low- and middle-income housing programs. They include: Homeownership -- Add $15 million to a down payment assistance program that has already loaned nearly $15 million. Households making up to 120 percent of the area median income (currently up to $123,600 for a family of four), could qualify for up to $100,000 in down payment assistance. -- Projected to help 1,000 first-time home buyers. -- Stabilization program to help avoid foreclosure and for code compliance upgrades. Affordable housing -- Thirty-year source of revenue to fund 4,500 units to house 10,000 residents making up to $61,800 for a family of four. Market-rate housing -- Helps developers by reducing the below-market-rate housing required on site from 15 to 12 percent. -- Caps all existing and future affordable housing fees for 30 years (unless developer is seeking rule exemptions). -- Below-market-rate requirements would kick in for buildings with 10 units rather than the current five units. General -- Either up to $2 million or 10 percent of the trust fund could be spent on neighborhood-improvement grants each year. Source: Mayor's Office of Housing, Office of Economic and Workforce Development John Coté is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: jcote@sfchronicle.com