Posted on 02/22/2013 4:23:34 PM PST by MichCapCon
The Genesee County Land Bank is considering offering properties rehabbed with federal taxpayer dollars to police officers, firefighters and soldiers at a discount. The land bank's favored buyers would pay 30 percent less.
The Genesee land bank isn't the first Michigan land bank to consider subsidizing housing for government workers. The Detroit Land Bank will pay the down payment for city employees, police officers or firefighters who purchase one of its properties. According to the city, 20 government employees have already closed on homes using this program. More than 200 others are in the process and looking to buy a subsidized home.
While offering reduced-priced homes to firefighters and police officers might sound like a nice idea, it's preferential treatment. Why do firefighters or police officers deserve a discount, but not private business owners or employees? People who put out fires and arrest criminals are valuable members of a community. But so are people who run longstanding businesses and people who work to provide goods and services to others.
Moreover, the properties that the Genesee land bank is considering discounting have already been heavily subsidized by federal taxpayers. More than $36 million has been spent on land banking activities in the area to fund just 177 rehabs and 1,400 demolitions.
Yet, the land bank is offering properties rehabbed with federal money for just $25,000 to $45,000. Any police officer, firefighter or soldier who purchases a Genesee land bank property is already getting a low price unavailable to most in the private real estate market, thanks to the forced generosity of taxpayers.
The fact is that firefighters and police officers have long enjoyed favored status in Flint and Detroit (as have government workers throughout the state).
Flint's firefighters and police officers have enjoyed the kind of job security and pay increases that most private-sector workers have not during this recession. In fact, Michigan Capitol Confidential reporting has shown that Flint police and fire union contracts are responsible for a large share of the city's financial problems.
While Flint's population dropped and per-capita income decreased, firefighters and police officers received large signing bonuses and raises of 11 and 14 percent in a single year.
Both Flint and Detroit face a daunting task of dealing with thousands of vacant properties. If the cities are having trouble selling their vacant properties, they should reduce prices for all prospective buyers, instead of favoring government workers.
Plenty of house for them, hell I'll chip in a 100 bucks for that one.
If we hire those Vietnamese bus companies that should get tickets for two or three people.
Similar program here in Utah - but there is one KEY point that isn’t mentioned.
These homes are generally located in “depressed” areas. The idea of offering these homes to teachers, firemen, police officers and other similar employees - is that they are instilling “good” neighbors into these homes, in the hopes that the neighborhood will get “better”.
Or, they could rent them to illegal aliens, ex-felons and low-income households on Gov’t assistance and watch the community follow the same path as countless others.
Well as we said in the 70s..
Detroit is the @sshole of the country and Flint is 60 miles up it....
I guess what a flood needs is more water
Excellent point!
There’s also this;
“Why do firefighters or police officers deserve a discount, but not private business owners or employees?”
(not sure why the writer left out soldiers)...
I might be missing something, but don’t those folks put themselves in harm’s way? I don’t think other businesses - who DO contribute to the community - are quite as life-risking.
But what about this POOR woman with 15 chilrun? She DEMANDS that someone be held accountable!
News interview—
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rPRtIOmPOD0&sns=em
maybe the problem is that the only people whom will live in the cesspools are the police and firefighters. lets face it Michigan has become a cesspool. Take it from someone whom does live in rural michigan. Now that in 2014, property tax will be only through the state and placed in a pool. the small town is going to have a $300,000.00 shortfall in January 2014. Voters do not get to vote on this issue until later in 2014 after the provision is in place. the amount of foreclosures and abandoned/vacant properties is on the increase. storefronts on the main street are empty. there is no blight enforcement because there is no money for an officer. yes, michigan is becoming more and more of a cesspool.
I disagree with you. They are bureauKaRATZ and do NOT deserve anything that the rest of us can’t get.
They VOLUNTEER to put themselves in harm’s way. They LIKE it, if they didn’t, they would not be in that line of work.
So, how different are they from the folks who climb phone poles in howling winds in the dead of winter to bring you your electricity?
Pretty risky business, that.
So you think that folks living off the taxpayer, like cops and firefighters, are more privileged than privateers who face similar risks?
I just wish I had a bureauKaRATZ pension. What a gravy train.
nurses who work in nonprofits for fewer benefits, no pensions or little pensions, fewer days off, and who work with TB,Mrsa,STD's and Hiv patients, as well as drug and alcohol addled street people....seems we face a pretty substantial risk too...are nurse going to be included in the give aways?.....didn't think so...
Hey, Spank,
Just re-read my own post. Didn’t mean for it to sound so harsh.
Just a minor point of disagreement, that’s all.
Have a good weekend.
He failed to recognize my effort with a bonus and I asked him why. His answer was "well, you volunteered for it, and I could have given it to somebody else and they'd done as well"
No doubt you get the idea ~ this is not just living in a house, or hustling a few spare bucks juggling slum properties for the depreciation and cash flow ~ the lucky gub'mnt employee is going to be living in a trashy and dangerous neighborhood.
You have to pay people more than your salary to get them to do that these days!
Cherry,
Right there with you. Nurses do put up with some unbelievable grief and a whole lot of risk.
I was in the ER with my bad ticker, heard the goons in off the street giving those very nice people a very bad time.
The fact that those women (and the few men in that profession) could shrug off the obscenities and unbelievable vulgarities hurled at them, and then help me out with a smile on their face, just says a whole lot about them.
Nuff said.
Once again I must disagree. They are not being "forced" to live there. They CHOOSE to live there. And the choice is spiced up by the incentive of low cost housing that the average citizen can't get.
Why is cop any more important than a woman who works her butt off in an office while trying to raise a kid or two?
How is it that a bureaKaRATZ is going to have a better impact on a neighborhood than run of the mill working people?
RATZ are not superior beings.
Probably because he's trained in the combat arts and carries a firearm, and he's less rapable.
Don’t ask those PInata questions ~ he doesn’t know the difference between boys and girls but here at FR we do
LOL
I like your dry sense of humor.
Others might be offended, I’m not.
You are right on the money. Have a good weekend.
BTW, never EVER hit a pinata with hornets flying out the a$$ end of it!!!
Bad move, really bad move.
Oh Dude, don't EVEN tell my kid sister that. She's a murderous mofo with her .357
LOL
God did NOT make men and women equal; but Smith and Wesson sure did.
And she made that point quite clear in the past.
You really need to re-think your mindset.
Sorry, I’m a traditionalist ~ hard core in fact. My womenfolk can use all sorts of weapons but shooting people in the gut isn’t always appropriate.
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