GROUP SAYS GOP LEADERS MUST BE MORE FORCEFUL ON AFFORDABLE HOUSING

GOP Strong Will Attend Wednesday’s Conference In Wayne, Prepared to Offer Common Sense  Initiatives 

 PASSAIC COUNTY - The State of New Jersey must scrap its affordable housing plan and begin legislative debate on a new hosing plan that makes economic, social and environmental sense, say the leaders of Republican political action committee – GOP Strong -- who will be attending a GOP affordable housing conference later this week in Wayne.

 “Everyone has recognized since February that the state Council on Affordable Housing has drafted and implemented a set of affordable housing rules that border on destructive socialism,” said GOP Strong co-chair Michael Ramaglia.

  “There are many ways to address housing issues other than forcing towns to accommodate high density housing that will raise property taxes, increase traffic congestion, degrade the environment – and most importantly – drive down the value of existing homes.

 “Unfortunately, the Democrats won’t consider any alternatives, so it is up to real Republican leaders and the public to demand a change in policy or make legislators suffer at the ballot box next year,” said Ramaglia  GOP-Strong says the state Republicans have to make the common sense argument that Gov. Corzine’s affordable housing policy will ruin lives and will not help the cities that need housing the most.

  “In the face of a national economic meltdown, rising foreclosures and falling house prices, Gov. Corzine wants to add hundreds of thousands of new housing units to the state, thereby  further depressing the values of existing homes,” said Ramaglia. 

“The Republican leadership should be advancing that argument now and make Corzine and the liberals defend their policies.”  A Republican policy committee on Affordable housing is schedule to meet on  Wednesday, October 22 in Wayne  Ramaglia said  GOP Strong will be present at the meeting to encourage Republican leaders to be bold and aggressive in derailing Corzine’ housing plan.

 Besides Ramaglia, the other co-chairs of GOP Strong are Michael Mecca of Clifton, a former Passaic County Republican Party chairman, Robert Fass, a Wayne resident and business owner, and Ann Marie Pusterla of Wayne.  

“Unless the  Republican legislators have the courage to do something that is courageous and motivates people at the  grass roots level, it makes no sense to have a meeting this week or any other week,”  said Mecca.

 “We don’t need any more legislators calling meetings just for the sake of saying they had a meeting, We need real action.

”HOUSING RIGHTS FOR WHOM?

GOP Strong advocates that Republicans need to start  offering alternatives to the affordable housing disaster presented by the Democrats and insist on a legislative approach, not one dictated by the courts and Council on Affordable Housing. GOP Strong is offering the following options to Republicans:

1. Attack the basic assertion of Corzine that everyone in New Jersey “has a right”  to an affordable house

 When did Gov Corzine create that right? It certainly isn’t in the  Constitution,” said Mecca.  The state Supreme Court ruled in the Mt. Laurel case that there has to be an opportunity through zoning law to build lower income houses. It did not say that everyone has a right to a house. 

“Who does this right accrue to. Does a 19 year-old out of high school have a right to a house? A recent college graduate? At what age and what stage of their life is a person entitled to get a government subsidized house?” asked Mecca.

2. GOP Strong says the Republican Party needs to recognize that home ownership is something you earn, not a right granted to you by the government.

“What separates Republicans from Democrats is the notion that you work for what you want. You don’t wait for government handout,” said Fass.

 “Many people struggled to get a home and did it successfully with no help from the government. They worked two and three jobs. Didn’t go out to dinner and did without vacations and new cars.  They saved and bought a  home and invested in its upkeep. There is honor and dignity in that struggle – but apparently millionaire Jon Corzine and his liberal Democrat colleagues do not think so. 

They want a short cut to home ownership,” said Fass, a business owner 

“But if the last few months have taught us anything, it is that there are no shortcuts to homeownership – and that when government gets involved in housing decisions, the results are economically disastrous, “ said Fass 

3. GOP Strong says that The Republican Party should challenge the income limits established by COAH to grant subsidized housing to families and individuals. 

 COAH has set income limits for those eligible for “affordable housing” subsidies that in many cases are equal to or more than the median income of families living in a particular town  For example the COAH median income limit for a family of four in Passaic County who could apply for affordable housing is $77,000In Clifton, the 2007 median household income is $56, 478 (CityData.com)In Haledon, it’s $50,500;  Hawthorne, $61,300;  Little Falls, $65,200; West Paterson, $66,800; Totowa, 67,000; Haledon, $50,000  Pusterla  said it is ludicrous for hard working middle class people who are struggling now to pay more in taxes to subsidize housing for people earning as much or more than they are.

“Corzine’s COAH plan is the same kind of  wealth redistribution that Barack Obama has in mind for America,” she said.

4. Define the housing problem – challenge the builder’s remedy with other alternatives.

 The liberals who support affordable housing mandates claim one reason we need the mandates is to allow people who provide services to a community to live there. But, notes, Ramaglia, many of the people employed by towns  - especially police, firefighters and teachers – have family incomes that are as much or more than that of local taxpayers. Ramaglia says that for lower paid municipal worker there is a better way to provide homes – a housing stipend.

“If a municipality finds it needs or lacks Public Works employees or secretaries because they can’t afford to live in town or nearby, the better solution is to give that employee a housing stipend to offset mortgage or rent costs. That makes a lot more sense than allowing a developer to build hundreds of units of housing to provide a handful of so-called “affordable units.” 

5. Create and expanded First Time Homebuyers Program and kill the builder’s remedy solution.  GOP Strong advocates creating a bigger statewide first time home buyers program, similar to the one initiated by the former  Republican administration in Bergen County.

Under the program, qualified buyers who lack down payment money for a new home, would receive a below market rate loan and, if needed, a grant to help make repairs on the house. The loan money would be generated by a state bond and  homebuyers who pay their mortgages would be paying off the bond.  Ramaglia says unlike with Fanny Mae and Freddie Mac mortgages, there would be no teaser rates and buyers would have to demonstrate a good employment history.

 “It makes more sense to help people get into their first home through a government loan, than to force taxes to go up for everyone else because some builder seeking to make a few million dollars sues a town and wins a builder’s remedy suit to erect hundreds of unwanted housing units,” said Ramaglia.                                                                                      Ramaglia also says that the GOP should challenge the builder’s remedy imposed by courts, while also looking closely at the developers who support Democrats who back the current COAH plan. 

6. Challenge the “Live where you Work idea.” One argument used by affordable housing is that people must be able to afford to live where they work.  Ramaglia says that concept  is absurd pie in the sky and unworkable for much of the state, especially in the Highlands Area. ‘The fact is that people switch jobs and careers at least a half dozen times during their working lives. What are they supposed to do?; move every time they change jobs? And do they get a subsidized home, every time? 

A West Milford resident, Ramaglia said thanks to the Highland Act, “the overwhelming majority of residents in the Highlands area will never be able to live where they work because of severe limits on commercial construction.” 

 “On the one hand the nvironmentalists want us out of our cars so we don’t contribute to Global Warming. On the other hand, with no jobs in Highlands region, people are forced to drive 50, 60, 70 miles a day to their job.

  “There is nothing that better illustrates the conflicts and ineptitude of liberal government than the clash between affordable housing mandates and environmental mandates,” said Ramaglia “The bottom line,” says Mecca, “is that the legislature has to wrestle the affordable housing policy away from the courts and the liberal judges. The legislature has to deal honestly with the issue and the Republicans must have the courage to fight the entire notion of affordable housing mandates.”