Tag Archives: affordable housing

Update from Olympia

Greetings from Olympia,

It’s been a busy week in your state Capitol. We’ve been working late into the evenings voting on all kinds of bills, mostly proposals by the majority party to increase energy costs, raise property taxes, impose new taxes on consumers, and grow government. You can be assured that I’ve been voting “No” on those efforts. Instead, I’ve taken opportunities to speak up for you on the Senate Floor, pointing out the facts. We don’t need to tax you more.

Thanks to the federal tax cuts and deregulation, our state is projected to receive billions more of your tax dollars than we expected. These aren’t my words. Our state economist was on TVW saying the same thing. In fact, the state’s budget is edging past $50 billion, and too many in Olympia think it’s still not enough.

Whether it’s affordable housing, education or transportation, the only solutions coming from those in charge are MORE TAXES!

I’ve adopted a three-pronged strategy to deal with these pressing issues before the Legislature:

Transportation;
Education; and
Housing and Homelessness.

Read more about my approach to addressing these problems below.

Fully Funding Transportation

In my last e-news update, I asked your input on how the state should address transportation funding. The results are clear. In case you missed it, you can read more about my plan by clicking here. Right now, we are stuck in an endless cycle of creating project lists and raising taxes to pay for them. In the transportation package being considered now, I was able to secure a lot of great things for our district, but to get them I’ll have to vote for billions in new taxes, including an $8 billion carbon tax and increase in the gas tax. I’ll be fighting to use the money you already send Olympia to meet our growing infrastructure needs.

Driving More Money into the Classroom

Classroom

There are over 1,400 unfunded mandates from the state on our local schools. These cost money. Conversations in Olympia are focused on how we get more money for schools. I want to know how we can get the billions we are already spending where they need to go – educating kids in the classroom. We spend about half of a $50 billion two-year budget on K-12 education. If we were able to save just 5 percent by reducing these mandates, that’s over $1 billion more for our students. Click here to learn more about my proposal.

Fighting for the American Dream

While our state is in the midst of a self-imposed housing crisis, I’m committed to finding real solutions. I sponsored legislation to make building single-family homes more affordable. The problem is that government regulations and fees are making the costs to build too high. Now, an entry-level home is more than $400,000. That puts the biggest driver of wealth creation for low- and middle-income families – their own home – out of reach. Instead of pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into government-subsidized housing, which costs more per unit than the private sector, we need to look at the underlying costs. Click here to watch a short video and here for a write-up I did on how we can make home ownership a reality for more people.

It is an honor serving as your state senator. Please don’t hesitate to reach out to me with any concerns you have about your state government.

Sincerely,

Fortunato Signature

Phil Fortunato,

Your 31st District Senator

Affordable housing work in jeopardy

Washington state’s housing problems spurred the creation of a housing-policy committee in the 2019 legislative session. However, tax efforts by legislative Democrats may undermine the committee’s work to address affordable housing.

Too many solutions legislative Democrats are promoting to address affordable housing are focused on raising taxes to subsidize ever-increasing costs. One proposal wants to raise the real estate excise tax to fund housing. This Socialist approach robs homeowners’ equity to fund more expensive government housing.

A recent report to the committee noted that non-profit, government funded housing costs 23 percent more than housing built by the private market. I offered amendments to prohibit more taxes to pay for government regulation instead of providing housing for people were rejected.

The Democrats seemed determined to undermine any approach to provide families with children a home of their own. They seem intent on cramming them into homeless camps, tiny homes and low-income government projects.

The Association of Washington Cities recently recognized my work in the committee and his legislation creating what he is calling “housing affordability zones.” Senate Bill 5802, which received a public hearing Feb. 20, would provide incentives to cities to lean into affordable-housing development with exemptions from fees and limits on building permits.

An official with the Association of Washington Cities says my proposal is “one of the only ideas that have been advanced this session that would directly promote private single-family development meeting a more affordable price point.”

I’m really concerned because while we are trying to tackle this self-imposed affordability crisis, some think the answer is to keep adding costs to housing. You don’t make housing more affordable by adding more taxes and regulations on housing.

Elephant in the Dome – Sen. Fortunato talks transportation and much more

Listen to my take on issue before the legislature in new episode of the Senate Republican’s podcast where I discuss transportation, taxes, education funding and affordable housing.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Fortunato calls on Sound Transit to halt $10 million giveaway

Sen. Phil Fortunato, R-Auburn, is calling on Sound Transit’s governing board to reverse a decision made last week to transfer millions of dollars of property over to non-profits at a financial loss. Sound Transit plans to transfer property valued at $18.5 million for a third or half of its market value in order to provide affordable housing sites in Seattle.

“Suddenly, the agency that claims every dime is essential for transit projects and can’t cut car tabs by a single penny, can afford to give away $10 million,” Fortunato said. “Sound Transit is taking millions from the budgets of families with school age children and seniors in the name of ‘congestion relief,’ so that it can turn around and give those millions away to something that has nothing to do with transit.

“This is pure bureaucratic arrogance. Tell voters it is all for congestion relief, then do whatever you want and give voters’ money to housing in Seattle. Every board member voting for this should be fired.”

Sound Transit made the decision in Resolution 2017-20 on May 25. It allows for a surplus parcel known as the “Roosevelt Station – Central Transit-Oriented Development Site” to be sold a steep discount for the purpose of affordable housing. In a letter (linked below) to Sound Transit Chief Executive Peter Rogoff, Fortunato questions the legality of the move based on stipulations in the federal grant and whether property seized through eminent domain for transportation purposes can be given away at a discount for unrelated purposes.

“This is social engineering insanity,” said Fortunato. “If Sound Transit thought people were mad about car tabs tripling before, wait until the people hear about this. This agency is absolutely tone deaf to the people they serve—or in the case of my district, the people they do not serve but just extract taxes from.”

Sound Transit.Rogoff Letter