One of the giant flaws in the McDonald proposal for affordable housing, is how the shift in "administrative costs" paid by CDBG to a housing fund would actually hurt the middle class and bread & butter tax base of the city the most. Using the maximum allocation of 20% of CDBG for administrative costs of eligible program activity is the only way CDBG funds can actually pay for city-wide services. Otherwise, those funds must be spent in CDBG target areas. If you shift 20% administrative funds away from city-wide program areas that qualify, you must replace those funds with general revenue (i.e. taxes). Since none of the qualifying services serve your typical middle class neighborhood, the use of CDBG admin funds reduces the city-wide tax burden on low-income neighborhood concentrated services. The alternative is to reduce the scope of the budget, (which the Council never seems capable of doing) or raise taxes for these administrative costs, which disproportionately falls upon the middle class and upper income properties - who again, receive none of the services. When I proposed the housing trust fund back in 1998, I had proposed that we make a concerted effort at preening departments that were no longer essential to municipal services, in favor of new priorities like housing. I had proposed cutting the Civil Rights Department, Police Civilian Review Board and Jobs & Training, in favor of allowing state or County departments with similar functions absorb these broader based goals. None of these proposals met w/ my colleagues approval. Symbolically, these city functions each have an interest group that demands their continued existence, but in reality, these particular city-level departments are woefully inefficient and duplicative to state and county functions already in place. Steve Minn Minneapolis > From: "Carol Becker" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Date: Mon, 7 May 2001 00:14:30 -0700 > Subject: [Mpls] Use of CDBG in Minneapolis > _______________________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - Minnesota E-Democracy Post messages to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest option, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
