Now also in orange. Recs and comments appreciated there as well.
Today, in the LA Times, Patrick McGreevy has an article about the funders of what will become, unfortunately Prop. 98. A sidebar real quick about the ballot designation of propositions. I've always felt that the initiatives that are particularly noteworthy should have their ballot designations retired. Take 98 for example. When somebody says Prop 98 to you, what do you think of? Education, probably. Well, now you're going to have to start thinking of the the Hidden Agendas Scheme as well, so for the next 4+ months, you're going to have to remember No on 98/Yes on 99. Put them together, remember them both. It's vitally important that, just for these few months, we hear, we know, and we repeat the phrase: "This is the WRONG Prop 98!"
So, back to the LA Times story. Basically, the fact that this is about rent control, pure and simple, is made plainly clear by the sources of funding: Apartment and mobile home owners. And coincidentally, Sam Zell.
In the spring, voters will decide whose interests prevail. More than 100 owners and operators of apartment buildings and mobile home parks spent nearly $2 million to put an initiative on the June 3 ballot to phase out California's rent control laws. About 1.2 million people statewide are covered by such laws.
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Big financial backers of the California Property Owners and Farmland Protection Act include the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Assn., which gave $100,000 to the effort and lent the campaign $200,000; the Western Manufactured Housing Communities Issues PAC, which contributed $150,000; and the Apartment Owners Assn. Political Action Committee, which put in $100,000.
Among the donations is $50,000 from Equity Lifestyle Properties Inc., which owns 27 mobile home parks in California, and many more in other states. Equity Lifestyle's chairman is Sam Zell, chairman of Tribune Co., which owns the Los Angeles Times.(LA Times 1.29.08)
The landlords continually plead poverty as an excuse, but that is far from clear. Take Jade Bay Mobile Lodge. They just declared for bankruptcy, allegedly because they couldn't afford rent. But what, they forgot to cover their tracks:
Kubota, for his part, says rent control helped ruin Jade Bay Mobile Lodge. He says financial problems developed at the 75-unit park after Chula Vista adopted a rent control law in 1986, and there's been an operating loss in each of the last five years. The site is now fenced, and the mobile homes have been removed.
"The income never matched the expenses," Kubota said. He couldn't afford to make improvements, and "the whole park deteriorated."
Some tenant activists say that Chula Vista's rent control law allows landlords to petition for increases so that they can make a "fair return" on their properties. To do so, they must open their financial books to the city. Tim Sheahan, president of the Golden State Manufactured-Housing Owners League, said Kubota's firm did not take advantage of the appeal because it wanted to shut the park down so it could be redeveloped with condos. Kubota declined to discuss the current status of the park, but city officials said an application had been submitted for a zone change that would allow apartments or condominiums on the site.
The fact is that too many people rely on rent control, like Mary Kubancik, who will have to leave her mobile home park in Sylanmar because her $919 social security check just can't cover the $702 rent. You can find this same story repeated over and over again throughout the state. Rent control helps REAL people. REAL Californians. That's why we need REAL eminent domain reform, not some hidden agenda meant to eliminate rent control.
As Mark Leno suggests, there are many reasons to oppose what will soon be known as Prop 98, not the least of which is rent control. You could also oppose it based on environmental factors, or water storage factors, whatever. We just need to keep reminding ourselves that "This is the Wrong Prop 98!"
Today, in the LA Times, 