Landlords victims, not villains of government plots

We’ve been deluged with manipulative press releases and e-mails from the well-funded opponents of Proposition 98/supporters of Proposition 99, the competing eminent domain ballot initiatives up for vote in June.

Proposition 98 has the strongest protections against eminent domain, which is why the Desert Dispatch, and other Freedom Communications newspapers in California, have endorsed it. According to several analyses of Proposition 99, including one from the non-partisan Legislative Analysts’ Office, Prop. 99 actually offers very little new eminent domain protection at all. It leaves small businesses, farms, churches, newly acquired homes, and rental properties at risk of seizure by local governments to assist private developers.

Knowing then that Prop. 99 does very little to protect anybody, opponents of Prop. 98 have decided on a cynical, manipulative tactic — going after landlords. Prop. 98 also restricts rent control, allowing landlords to actually decide how much to rent their properties for after tenants change, which is most certainly their right.

Not so, argue Prop. 98 foes. They seem to feel that tenants (and the government) should decide what their rent is, not landlords. The No on 98, Yes on 99 site (Notice how they’re more concerned about defeating 98 than passing 99) states about Prop. 98, “(T)heir hidden agenda is to eliminate rent control so they can make hundreds of millions of dollars by raising rents on seniors and working families.”

But the reality is rent control was created as a nasty solution to a problem that was caused by, no surprise, the government. California’s egregious restrictions and regulations on development damage the ability to meet the rental housing needs of its residents. Because it’s so hard to build new housing, demand outpaces supply, and prices go up. If developers had more freedom in building homes and apartments, rent control wouldn’t be a problem. It’s been mentioned a number of times over the past few years that Barstow’s rents are cheap compared to the rest of the state. There are a lot of contributing factors, but availability of land and limited building restrictions number among them.

Rent control probably isn’t a big deal for most Barstow residents, so why should they care? Why not vote for both? Proposition 99 also has a “poison pill” provision. If both measures pass, but Prop. 99 gets more votes than Prop. 98, then Prop. 98 will not go into effect. That means no real eminent domain reform at all.

We’ll be repeating this up through the June election — vote yes on Proposition 98 and no on Proposition 99.