BlogWood: MT Archives

Why does the GOP hate the American dream?

So, as expected , the GOP dominated Florida Legislature just found out that it has $2.2 Billion in extra cash just laying around, and the first thing they try to do is slash a program that pays for affordable housing – a program that is sorely needed in these times of rapidly escalating costs.

The boom in Florida's real-estate market has been larger and longer than anyone could have predicted, with one state economist at an economic meeting Monday in Tallahassee describing it as "insane."

The downside of that rise: Affordable housing for low-income Floridians has been increasingly hard to come by.
Yet in a year when legislators were wondering what to do with hundreds of millions of extra dollars even before a revenue-estimating conference Monday increased the state's anticipated income, a bill gaining steam in the legislature would hurt state funding for affordable housing even more.

The House last week passed a bill that would limit how much of the money generated from documentary-stamp taxes is put into a trust fund that pays for affordable housing.

The results of that measure, according to a study by the Florida Housing Coalition, would be the loss of more than 12,500 homes for low-income Floridians and nearly 30,000 jobs tied to the construction and repair of those homes.

In Palm Beach, Martin and St. Lucie counties, 763 homes and nearly 1,700 jobs tied to those homes would be lost.

"It's a disgrace," said Jaimie Ross, executive director for affordable housing for 1000 Friends of Florida. "It's something that Florida voters really need to understand. Their legislators are taking a budget that's flush with revenue, giving it to the rich and taking away from the poor."
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The bill's sponsor, Rep. Fred Brummer, R-Apopka, said $376 million is too much to automatically set aside for affordable housing.

"Affordable housing is certainly a noble need," Brummer said. "We're not talking about something that isn't just. But what's the difference between the funding of classroom education and justifying their need, as opposed to affordable housing getting their money at the front gate, getting their money off the top?"

Rep. Nancy Detert, a fellow Republican, disagrees.

As the bill sped through committees, she unsuccessfully tried to soften its blow by making the cap a "soft cap," so that the limit could go up as doc-stamp revenues do.

"When people hear 'affordable housing,' they're thinking welfare housing," said Detert of Venice. "But we're talking about normal workers: People who work in this building, people who are firemen, the stucco guy, the roofer can't afford a house."

Dorina Jenkins, Fort Pierce community services director, said there isn't enough money this year for more than 100 people in the city to tap into the funds.

Jenkins runs a program funded through the doc-stamp revenues that helps low-income families with the down payment and closing costs on their first homes.

"It would put a tremendous dent in homeownership in our city," she said of the proposed cap. "It would make it impossible for those people to take on the American dream of owning their own homes."

The Republican agenda includes money for corrupt Corporate Welfare Daddies , but no money for sick children . The GOP is all about giving cash to religious schools , but there's not enough for small public school classes and decent teacher pay . Cigarette companies get help while anti-smoking programs are choked off .

Now, if all of this pisses you off just a bit, try not to show anger in public, else a neighbor may twist your wrath into a personal threat and legally shoot you dead in the street, thus invoking the sacred GOP given right to kill our fellow man if he so much as looks at us funny.

Remember: the culture of life only counts for the chosen wans.