Homework for ‘clueless’ city

The road to hell in Kent is paved with good intentions and very little solid education.

And that combo results in more legalized theft called taxes – and growing taxes – for existing Kent businesses and residents.

Let’s not keep repeating the same mistake.

In the U.S. there’s a national apartment shortage because demand outpaces supply. By 2030 4.6 million units are needed for the demand. Yet, Freddie Mac’s “Multifamily 2018 Outlook” reports 11.4 percent decline in permits and a 9.8 percent decline in new starts since 2016.

Obviously, the Marquee on Meeker complex is Kent’s exception.

So why again was the Kent government so generous with a developer-builder’s sweetheart tax deal at the expense of Kent’s existing and heavily-taxed population base when Kent teeters on a fiscal cliff?

Our elected and paid city staff are clueless to market forces.

All they know is how to steal from Peter to give to Paul.

A few key points from the Freddie Mac report informs us that on average 325,000 new apartments are needed each year nationally. Yet, only on average 244,000 new apartments come online annually between 2012-2016, a huge improvement from a 50-year low of just 97,000 new units in 2009. A record one million annual new renter households were formed during that time.

See a problem? Obviously the Auburn-based developer group saw a terrific opportunity. And Kent government officials fawned and slobbered all over the calculating buyers of the par 3 golf course with gorgeous, unobstructed Mount Rainier views. What’s done is done. No more.

Maybe, just maybe the homeless is more a result from an apartment shortage than government officials care to know.

So, Kent government, do your homework to get a passing grade or suffer taxpayers’ wrath. Kent cannot afford to be generous anymore when statistics tell us a completely different story.

– Joy Etienne