HomeMy WebLinkAbout11-02-21 Public Comment - T. Londe - Housing LevyFrom:Tom Londe
To:Agenda
Subject:Affordable housing ballot question
Date:Tuesday, November 2, 2021 11:53:55 PM
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The city needs a real plan when it comes to affordable housing and how it wants to spend
money on this issue. As someone who is very close to having to leave Bozeman, I entirelyrealize how huge of an issue affordable housing is. But the biggest failing of this ballot
question (and why I was ultimately unable to support it) was because nobody seemed to haveany idea how the money was going to get used beyond simply saying it was for affordable
housing. And frankly, "Please give us access to this big pot of money, and I'm sure we'll figuresomething out!" is the worst sales pitch on the planet. I don't necessarily think that the
message that you should be taking out of this is that folks think that this issue should be paidfor strictly out of the general fund. As every other initiative on this year's ballot showed, plus
the parks initiative and the BPSC previously, folks are plenty willing to tax themselves if it'sfor something they believe in or like. But you simply can't ask for $10M without at least
giving the people at least SOME idea of how it's going to be used.Tom Londe