Among Sawant Kshama’s catch phrase demagoguery is the term “linkage fees.” This is a tax on new construction .. presumably to be used ot pay for creating the housing projects she wants to build for the poor.
Sounds good? Perhaps until you read the numbers. The linkage fee she proposes would cost a NEW homeowner of a low priced, $400,000 home … over a $100,ooo! If she had paid this a year ago, her $400,000 home would have cost $500,000 unless the fee were only levied on new construction. In that case Sawant’s home would be worth a lot more because no one could afford a newly built house. In other words, a linkage fee is a tax on new residents that subsidizes the hiome values of those of us, like Sawant, who already own a house.
A linkage fee ought not to go to the city’s operational costs ..that siw hy we have taxes.
So why do I support a rational linkage fee? New residents mean capital costs for transit, schools, libraries, etc. Note I said capital costs. These need to be part of construction. Operational costs and city wide initiatives like housing projects should be born by the taxpayers BUT that means an assessment of any large construction effort to be sure its operation costs out.