Where’s the money?

Last week we asked Mayor Levar M. Stoney to explain what happened to the higher real estate taxes the city received from owners of property with expiring tax abatements, also called roll-off dollars.

Others involved in housing advocacy have been just as puzzled as we are as to what happened to the first installment of $2.4 million of roll-off dollars that a city ordinance required be sent to the city’s Affordable Housing Trust Fund to be used to support development of incomerestricted developments.

For the first time, there is an explanation as to where that money went.

The $2.4 million and any further roll-off dollars are now included in the city’s general fund revenue without any specific indicator, according to Lincoln Saunders, the city’s chief administrative officer.

Mr. Saunders said the 2020 ordinance that City Council passed to direct that roll-off dollars be used as a revenue stream for the Affordable Housing Trust Fund “is still on the books.”

But he said the administration, with City Council’s tacit approval, is essentially ignoring that law, which he said is to be updated or eliminated in the coming months.

He said the council agreed with the approach that the Stoney administration adopted, which is to borrow $10 million in each of the next five years to support development of affordable housing in the city.

“I think it is a false statement to imply the money is somehow missing, when it is not,” he said.

Mr. Saunders said the city changed its approach to funding affordable housing after it discovered that the roll-off dollars would produce less money than anticipated.

He said the initial $2.4 million would have grown over several years to a maximum of $5.2 million a year and not increase, or less than the $10 million to be borrowed.

Mr. Saunders said the new approach would give the city a better chance to meet the goal of generating 10,000 additional affordable housing units by 2030, including apartments and for-sale homes.

Roll-off dollars would generate $23.8 million during the next five fiscal years, Mr. Saunders said. By borrowing the money, the city will have $50 million, or an additional $26.2 million to invest in income-restricted housing.

The new approach means that “we will be able to do more,” Mr. Saunders said.

The new approach also is more costly.

Mr. Saunders estimates the city will spend $17.6 million over 20 years to repay each $10 million borrowed. In other words, the city will pay $88 million over 20 years to repay the $50 million it collectively plans to borrow.

That’s a policy choice that can be debated.

We believe the administration and the council could have explained this more clearly and sooner to ensure the public was clear about what was happening.

Uphold your oath

We call on President Biden to uphold his oath to “preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.”

And that means preventing House Republicans from engineering a default in government payments on the debt.

Republicans have thrown down the gauntlet and are holding hostage a bill to raise the debt ceiling so that the government can continue to cover debts already approved by Congress in past budgets.

Their goal in creating this impasse is to ensure passage of legislation to cut spending in future budgets.

Failure to raise the debt ceiling could bring a halt to Social Security payments, stop Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements to doctors and hospitals, kill health care for veterans and create chaos in our trade with other nations for whom the dollar is the general currency.

Tens of thousands of people whose jobs are linked to federal spending could be out of work. Grants that localities count on could cease.

The GOP, and the party’s business allies who somehow think they will be untouched, do not care how much damage they cause to get their way.

However, President Biden can halt this crisis that could come as soon as June 1 by upholding a section of the 14th Amendment.

That section reads: “The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned.”

In other words, he can order the U.S. Treasury to continue to pay the government’s debts without a congressional vote to raise the debt ceiling. The president already has said he is considering use of that section as the government’s ability to borrow runs out.

This is not what President Biden wants. But as chief executive, he is duty bound to carry out the laws that Congress passes, including the budget.

We say that failure to use that section of the 14th Amendment, Mr. President, would violate the oath you swore when you took office.

The battle over budgets can continue.

But that debate over the appropriate amount of government spending cannot be allowed to crash the economy and leave the American people in far worse shape.

Do your duty, Mr. President. Stop the madness.

“Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” Lord John Acton

I almost find it uncanny that a long-deceased individual can provide such an accurate analysis of current times. Or maybe it’s the predictable nature of humans?

However we reason it, the abuse of power is a recurring theme in human history that only portends tragedy for the less powerful.

By their nature, democracies are governments which are supposed to function in accordance with and express the will of the (majority of the) people. For that very reason, democracies are antithetical to those who value power over all else. As with the contemporary Republican Party and American Democracy, when the majority will of the people conflicts with the desires of those in power, chaos reigns.

Any secondary school civics textbook will explain that, in a democracy, the role of a political party is to explain proposed policy(ies) and convince a ma-