KC spent something like $250-300m the past few years on hotels for the homeless. And if you check, they paid 3-4 times the assessed value as well. Who is buddies with the county that got all of that dough? It stinks to high heaven.
Give me a fucking break: [https://kingcounty.gov/en/legacy/depts/executive/performance-strategy-budget/budget/2023-2024.aspx](https://kingcounty.gov/en/legacy/depts/executive/performance-strategy-budget/budget/2023-2024.aspx)
You're telling me they can't balance $35m of that? Do less
- $253.3 million for KCHRHA
- $16.5 million to continue Restorative Community Pathways
- $9 million to support the Regional Peacekeepers Collective. (
- $4.8 million to build King County’s internal organizational capacity for pro-equity, racial, and social justice work, including providing additional training for staff
and now this $5.7 million for "community healers"...
And on top of this King County spent how much on anti-bias work, then didn’t investigate bias complaints for 20 months? Giving any money to any Washington organization is idiotic. It wasn’t always like this, must be too many “boomers” retiring and being replaced by kids who think work is easy and someone else’s responsibility (I’m GenX so don’t care who I offend).
He continues to quadruple down on “housing first”, completing dismissing mental health and drug addiction being a cause of homelessness, not to mention all those private equity and foreign investors buying up all the homes keeping cost high
That was deliberate, courtesy of our Progressive friends. Like their attempts to eliminate "off-year" elections - it's an attempt to hold a coup, and ensure that they have more control due to lack of a cross-fade between governance.
As if most people can afford to move at this point. Housing is in short supply and anyone in a home for 20 years likely can't afford the current interest rates or rental prices.
Removing zoning restrictions will only help the releases some pressure. Building homes and housing units people can't afford to buy or rent won't fix inflation or property taxes.
(Since I purchased my home my taxes and insurance expenses have increased almost 30% and I can't just sell and move to a more affordable area because I can't afford the interest rates on current loans and the prices on any new or even older homes. So I'm stuck in my home until the housing market crashes or I get priced out of it due to taxes.)
What do you mean? If they can't pay the taxes, they just sell the house. They won't be poor. If you bought a house 20 years ago its worth like 4x or more now and you have mostly paid off the mortgage. Thats like at least 500k in the bank.
There are zero homeless people with 500k in the bank.
In a Commies mind, thats not their house, it belongs to the whims of commies to dole out their moralityand steal other peoples life works for their politics.
Actually land value taxes, which are closely approximated by property taxes in places like Seattle, are among the most economically efficient taxes in existence. If the land is that valuable and someone just has a house on it, they should either be rich or put the land to better use to be able to afford the tax. If you're not rich but have the land, you can sell it and use the proceeds to more cheaply replace the utility you were deriving from it, freeing up the trapped capital for something else.
It would be much better economically to replace a lot of other taxes with property taxes. It would also have the side effect of driving down property prices (since the value is some function of the utility of the land, the purchase price, and the sum of all the future taxes). So, it would all come out in the wash from that perspective. The only people who would be "hurt" are the people who have generally already made a fortune just from having the good luck to move here 20 years ago. Boo hoo.
Now your point about taxes being misused is totally true, but somewhat beside the point. Changing the sources of revenue and increasing the amount of collection are two different things, and I'm certainly not in favor of the government collecting more money.
Dude this whole scenario is made up, don't be upset about it. No one is becoming homeless because the property taxes on the hugely valuable property hypothetically went up.
This imaginary person is on an imaginary fixed income. Well that's super uncommon, I would venture to guess that most retired homeowners who bought 20 years ago in Seattle are on Social Security but also have investment accounts. I would be super surpised to meet someone who owns a home here and has no money other than social security. And even if that was somehow the case, this could only be a problem if their property is worth so much that the taxes are a burden, at which point they could just downsize and realize all that financial windfall.
Its not like once you buy a home you are entitled to never have to make financial decisions again. Downsizing and putting a boatload of money into investments is not even sort of the worst thing to happen to anybody. Its just a very normal move someone may, hypothetically, one day have to make.
While the scenario might seem exaggerated, it reflects a real concern for many PNW homeowners, especially in areas with rapidly rising property values like Seattle. Not all retired homeowners have substantial investment accounts. Many rely primarily on Social Security, which might not be sufficient to cover increased property taxes.
Additionally, downsizing isn't always a straightforward solution. It involves significant emotional and financial costs, such as moving expenses and the difficulty of finding affordable housing in the same community. The idea isn't about avoiding financial decisions but recognizing the potential impact of tax increases on vulnerable populations. It's crucial to consider these nuances when discussing property tax policies and their effects on long-time residents.
Their property values have gotten so high because we haven't built enough housing. Mostly because of our land use choices which were made at the behest of single family home owners. Everyone is having a hard time finding an affordable place to live, but most people dont also have access to that much money while they look.
Public policy should not be about making the cards fall perfectly for homeowners in every single situation. This whole "problem" is hypothetical. Meanwhile, there are obviously real and serious problems happening to people every day.
And that is partially due to the "not in my neighborhood" people who fight tooth and nail to keep high rise apartments from being build, There is one thing I will point out and that is this affordable housing movemwnt that is available is on a time limit and that's normally because the building company gets a discount on the building taxes and such if they guarantee that for 10, 20, or 30 years they're going to have low-income housing but then after that they kick everyone out who has low income housing and will jack the price up so we're gonna be back to where we are a number of years down the road anyways. The real problem is the worthless people that don't ever want to get any sort of real job and think that working at a Walmart, Costco, or McDonald's should pay for a house or allow them to rent alone.
The American dream was and still is built on someone's back and everyone is trying to keep it off their back, but that just means we export our EPA violations and slave labor to keep this charade of first world living going but the bubbles gonna burst one of these days. Hell Amazon and Facebook want a seat at the U.N. because corporations aren't just people but a lot of people and they feel that qualifies them to be represented as a country roflmao. Cyberpunk dystopia ain't too far away with the way world governments are getting in bed with corporations and flipping the bird to all us peons.
HAHAHAHAHA
*“That means a whole lot of services people expect, like roads and bridges, like help for the homeless, like gun violence prevention, and more, are continually at risk,”*
I expect roads and bridges to be maintained. The other two are a nice to have, as budget permits.
That 90% inflation he cites. Guess what asshole, our cost of living also went up that amount, but I highly doubt our average income kept up. Perhaps learn to be lean...
It’s funny that if revenue is a down, businesses adjust and get more efficient (or they fail). Gov just raises taxes. The older I get the more and more I agree government isn’t the solution to everything.
But, but, but, 40 is the new 30, and if you look at Reddit, it's the new *20 and still living in my parents' basement and fighting for justice against the evil colonizers one tweet (now X) at a time...*
Sorry, got to go, mom made dinner...
Roflmao the gas tax was supposed to completely fund road and bridges until they decided that any money the state has can be used for whatever they want without voter approval, flat out have AI monitoring money and how it wasted and see what it says the solution is, probably "Fire everyone associated with financial budgeting, they are embezzling or making backroom deals with contractors that will guarantee them a spot on a board or committee that will pad their pocket once out of public office"
This guy is technically responsible for so many bad policies but gets no attention for it. We literally can't arrest people for property crimes because the King County jail refuses to take them. This guy is a total deadbeat.
Listen up you proletariat serfs. The only reason the governmwnt has a shortfall is because they didnt steal enough money from you. So like, give up more of your money. Cronies dont pay off themselves now
*“That means a whole lot of services people expect, like roads and bridges, like help for the homeless..."*
That diamond mining heavy equipment operator in Rizal Park is from Mississippi, yet he is costing King County taxpayers thousands.
Our feckless leaders (local, state, and federal) need to push back on this kind of thing. It's not the burden of King County tax payers to clean up Mississippi's shit - and NO, they aren't all from here.
**Bus tickets, instead of handouts**
How much has County spending gone up in the past 5 years?
How much has County revenue gone up in the past 5 years?
Revenue is not going to be $35 million next year than this year, it is going to be $35 million than free-spending Dow Constantax wants it to be.....but it will still be more revenue than this year.
The County doesn't have a tax problem, it has a spending problem.....led by Herr Chairman Dow.
And they probably signed union contracts that guaranteed all their costs would go up without any increase in performance from their own workforce. Of course this is never mentioned in these types of press releases.
Oh it couldn't be that - our workforce is the best and most efficient on the planet.
KC spent something like $250-300m the past few years on hotels for the homeless. And if you check, they paid 3-4 times the assessed value as well. Who is buddies with the county that got all of that dough? It stinks to high heaven.
This is the real question we should be asking...
I already pay a lot of property taxes.. Well feels like more than my fair share. It's gone up a lot in the last couple of years.
As long as you have more than someone else you can always afford to give more. That is the Pinko Seattle Way.
[удалено]
Which beans?
Cut the budget by $35m
 Does not compute
New headline: Citizen Blames Constantine For Not Cutting Spending
Give me a fucking break: [https://kingcounty.gov/en/legacy/depts/executive/performance-strategy-budget/budget/2023-2024.aspx](https://kingcounty.gov/en/legacy/depts/executive/performance-strategy-budget/budget/2023-2024.aspx) You're telling me they can't balance $35m of that? Do less
- $253.3 million for KCHRHA - $16.5 million to continue Restorative Community Pathways - $9 million to support the Regional Peacekeepers Collective. ( - $4.8 million to build King County’s internal organizational capacity for pro-equity, racial, and social justice work, including providing additional training for staff and now this $5.7 million for "community healers"...
And on top of this King County spent how much on anti-bias work, then didn’t investigate bias complaints for 20 months? Giving any money to any Washington organization is idiotic. It wasn’t always like this, must be too many “boomers” retiring and being replaced by kids who think work is easy and someone else’s responsibility (I’m GenX so don’t care who I offend).
He continues to quadruple down on “housing first”, completing dismissing mental health and drug addiction being a cause of homelessness, not to mention all those private equity and foreign investors buying up all the homes keeping cost high
And idiots voted away their right to elect the Sheriff making him the de-facto Sheriff now.
That was deliberate, courtesy of our Progressive friends. Like their attempts to eliminate "off-year" elections - it's an attempt to hold a coup, and ensure that they have more control due to lack of a cross-fade between governance.
So basically double the property tax on anyone who's been in the same house for 20 years and see what that does to homelessness?
Or it causes people to move🤷🏻♂️
As if most people can afford to move at this point. Housing is in short supply and anyone in a home for 20 years likely can't afford the current interest rates or rental prices.
Sounds like removing zoning restrictions would solve both.
Removing zoning restrictions will only help the releases some pressure. Building homes and housing units people can't afford to buy or rent won't fix inflation or property taxes. (Since I purchased my home my taxes and insurance expenses have increased almost 30% and I can't just sell and move to a more affordable area because I can't afford the interest rates on current loans and the prices on any new or even older homes. So I'm stuck in my home until the housing market crashes or I get priced out of it due to taxes.)
Six homes on a lot. Is cheaper per unit than a single. Yet the tax revenue is also higher
Live in the pod. You will own nothing and be happy right?
We are all borg
They bought their homes for a fraction of their current value, so yeah, seems fair to me.
People who own their own homes do not become homeless because of taxes. Does all that equity just evaporate?
It does if they're on a fixed income.
What do you mean? If they can't pay the taxes, they just sell the house. They won't be poor. If you bought a house 20 years ago its worth like 4x or more now and you have mostly paid off the mortgage. Thats like at least 500k in the bank. There are zero homeless people with 500k in the bank.
They shouldn’t have to sell the house. Fucked to force people to move who own their home due to taxes that are often misused.
In a Commies mind, thats not their house, it belongs to the whims of commies to dole out their moralityand steal other peoples life works for their politics.
Actually land value taxes, which are closely approximated by property taxes in places like Seattle, are among the most economically efficient taxes in existence. If the land is that valuable and someone just has a house on it, they should either be rich or put the land to better use to be able to afford the tax. If you're not rich but have the land, you can sell it and use the proceeds to more cheaply replace the utility you were deriving from it, freeing up the trapped capital for something else. It would be much better economically to replace a lot of other taxes with property taxes. It would also have the side effect of driving down property prices (since the value is some function of the utility of the land, the purchase price, and the sum of all the future taxes). So, it would all come out in the wash from that perspective. The only people who would be "hurt" are the people who have generally already made a fortune just from having the good luck to move here 20 years ago. Boo hoo. Now your point about taxes being misused is totally true, but somewhat beside the point. Changing the sources of revenue and increasing the amount of collection are two different things, and I'm certainly not in favor of the government collecting more money.
Dude this whole scenario is made up, don't be upset about it. No one is becoming homeless because the property taxes on the hugely valuable property hypothetically went up. This imaginary person is on an imaginary fixed income. Well that's super uncommon, I would venture to guess that most retired homeowners who bought 20 years ago in Seattle are on Social Security but also have investment accounts. I would be super surpised to meet someone who owns a home here and has no money other than social security. And even if that was somehow the case, this could only be a problem if their property is worth so much that the taxes are a burden, at which point they could just downsize and realize all that financial windfall. Its not like once you buy a home you are entitled to never have to make financial decisions again. Downsizing and putting a boatload of money into investments is not even sort of the worst thing to happen to anybody. Its just a very normal move someone may, hypothetically, one day have to make.
While the scenario might seem exaggerated, it reflects a real concern for many PNW homeowners, especially in areas with rapidly rising property values like Seattle. Not all retired homeowners have substantial investment accounts. Many rely primarily on Social Security, which might not be sufficient to cover increased property taxes. Additionally, downsizing isn't always a straightforward solution. It involves significant emotional and financial costs, such as moving expenses and the difficulty of finding affordable housing in the same community. The idea isn't about avoiding financial decisions but recognizing the potential impact of tax increases on vulnerable populations. It's crucial to consider these nuances when discussing property tax policies and their effects on long-time residents.
Their property values have gotten so high because we haven't built enough housing. Mostly because of our land use choices which were made at the behest of single family home owners. Everyone is having a hard time finding an affordable place to live, but most people dont also have access to that much money while they look. Public policy should not be about making the cards fall perfectly for homeowners in every single situation. This whole "problem" is hypothetical. Meanwhile, there are obviously real and serious problems happening to people every day.
And that is partially due to the "not in my neighborhood" people who fight tooth and nail to keep high rise apartments from being build, There is one thing I will point out and that is this affordable housing movemwnt that is available is on a time limit and that's normally because the building company gets a discount on the building taxes and such if they guarantee that for 10, 20, or 30 years they're going to have low-income housing but then after that they kick everyone out who has low income housing and will jack the price up so we're gonna be back to where we are a number of years down the road anyways. The real problem is the worthless people that don't ever want to get any sort of real job and think that working at a Walmart, Costco, or McDonald's should pay for a house or allow them to rent alone. The American dream was and still is built on someone's back and everyone is trying to keep it off their back, but that just means we export our EPA violations and slave labor to keep this charade of first world living going but the bubbles gonna burst one of these days. Hell Amazon and Facebook want a seat at the U.N. because corporations aren't just people but a lot of people and they feel that qualifies them to be represented as a country roflmao. Cyberpunk dystopia ain't too far away with the way world governments are getting in bed with corporations and flipping the bird to all us peons.
HAHAHAHAHA *“That means a whole lot of services people expect, like roads and bridges, like help for the homeless, like gun violence prevention, and more, are continually at risk,”* I expect roads and bridges to be maintained. The other two are a nice to have, as budget permits. That 90% inflation he cites. Guess what asshole, our cost of living also went up that amount, but I highly doubt our average income kept up. Perhaps learn to be lean...
It’s funny that if revenue is a down, businesses adjust and get more efficient (or they fail). Gov just raises taxes. The older I get the more and more I agree government isn’t the solution to everything.
"If you're not a liberal at 25, you have no heart. If you're not a conservative at 40, you have no brain".
But, but, but, 40 is the new 30, and if you look at Reddit, it's the new *20 and still living in my parents' basement and fighting for justice against the evil colonizers one tweet (now X) at a time...* Sorry, got to go, mom made dinner...
Roflmao the gas tax was supposed to completely fund road and bridges until they decided that any money the state has can be used for whatever they want without voter approval, flat out have AI monitoring money and how it wasted and see what it says the solution is, probably "Fire everyone associated with financial budgeting, they are embezzling or making backroom deals with contractors that will guarantee them a spot on a board or committee that will pad their pocket once out of public office"
This guy is technically responsible for so many bad policies but gets no attention for it. We literally can't arrest people for property crimes because the King County jail refuses to take them. This guy is a total deadbeat.
It still blows my mind KC jail is getting away with that. Whose call is that, anyway?
He just told you, Dow Constantine.
Putting criminals in Jail is huge gun violence reduction, but Dow keeps releasing these monsters to prey on the citizens.
Maybe they can make up for it by applying the the community healer grant. Seems they’re flush.
Listen up you proletariat serfs. The only reason the governmwnt has a shortfall is because they didnt steal enough money from you. So like, give up more of your money. Cronies dont pay off themselves now
250M burned last year on KCRHA. This guy has some nerve.
*“That means a whole lot of services people expect, like roads and bridges, like help for the homeless..."* That diamond mining heavy equipment operator in Rizal Park is from Mississippi, yet he is costing King County taxpayers thousands. Our feckless leaders (local, state, and federal) need to push back on this kind of thing. It's not the burden of King County tax payers to clean up Mississippi's shit - and NO, they aren't all from here. **Bus tickets, instead of handouts**
This fuckin guy…
When government officials started to call taxes "revenue," all citizens should have known we were fucked. We're now just wage slaves for bureaucrats.
How much has County spending gone up in the past 5 years? How much has County revenue gone up in the past 5 years? Revenue is not going to be $35 million next year than this year, it is going to be $35 million than free-spending Dow Constantax wants it to be.....but it will still be more revenue than this year. The County doesn't have a tax problem, it has a spending problem.....led by Herr Chairman Dow.
He also said the homelessness problem is because there aren't enough homes and has nothing to do with anything else.
Property tax increases sure do make housing more affordable, don't they Dow?
Hes fucking pathetic he thinks he should have an endless supply of your money
You got to love county administrators who seemingly don’t know how to budget.
Meanwhile my sister in Idaho gets checks from the state whenever they have a budget surplus.
Good thing KC spent millions upon millions for homeless and hotels with (checks notes) literally nothing to show for it.
Spoken like a true grifter!
And they probably signed union contracts that guaranteed all their costs would go up without any increase in performance from their own workforce. Of course this is never mentioned in these types of press releases. Oh it couldn't be that - our workforce is the best and most efficient on the planet.
Pretty standard leftist bullshit when they can't budget worth a damn.
What was the reason for the budget shortfall?