Joe,
Ireton has it in head to go to the City Council for $45k to buy up to 45 properties at the upcoming CITY tax sale. He wants to either tear them down and put in a neighborhood park, or at least get them into the City’s control to get them cleaned up and not such an eyesore.
Get this, On the WBOC news video, the two streets mentioned were Philadelphia and New York Avenues, or, in other word, his own immediate neighborhood.
This is not only a conflict of interest using City funds to increase the property values in his own neighborhood, but a mathematically impossible move!
First of all, the banks that now own the houses need to pay their taxes, and if they are exempt, then they need to be fined for uncut grass and general blight. The City’s ONLY interest here is to collect the back tax monies owed.
NOW YOU HAVE OUR Village Idiot wanting to dig out $45k that we don’t have (FD, & Rain tax) to buy, say, just ONE house and he gets it for $2,500.
City owned properties do not pay taxes, either.
Title & deed work, closing costs $5k
Tear down the house, $13k
Install pieces of playground equipment $45k
Landscape, bushes, trees, mulch, sod $15k
Annual maintenance costs $5k
Total costs $85.5k
TOTAL RETURN ON INVESTMENT <- k="">->
Total original monies started with, $45k, so now the City is out another $41k!
Well, that plan doesn’t work, as the property is still off the tax rolls, and is now not saleable to the private sector.
Scenario #2, flip a house:
Buy the house with tax money, money is collected by the City and put back into the City tax fund $0
Closing costs, title & deed work, Legal fees $5k
Bring property up to a saleable standard & list $75k
Total invested in property $82,500
Last 5 home sales in that neighborhood (average) $82, 500
Total profits from a’’ that hard work -$10k - +$10k , or $0.
All the while waiting for it to sell with no taxes coming in.
Joe, this is how Liberals and Democrats work. Oh, getting rid of blighted properties sounds like such a good cause and people rally to the cry until a Conservative stops to do the math, and ask HOW, without any money to put in even ONE storm drain and needs money from the County for a crippled, blind, dragging one leg Fire Department that it can justify getting into the house flipping business?
Aside from the fact I’m sure I’ll find in the Charter, using taxpayer money to run a real estate venture on the side has got to be beyond illegal.
But, to a Democrat libtard, the law must not matter…