Fitzsimon File

Another legislative week is over, no flood relief package for Western North Carolina, no committees in the House. Even an informational session about the state’s budget problems scheduled for Thursday morning was cancelled so lawmakers could head home early or attend President Bush’s town hall meeting in Raleigh. The big news of the week was that Governor Mike Easley will give his State of the State speech February 21.

The session’s slow start doesn’t mean that wheels aren’t turning behind the scenes. The overriding question continues to be how to balance the budget, what taxes to raise or what programs to cut. Easley and legislative leaders continue to talk about the budget in terms of creating jobs and boosting North Carolina’s economy. That will undoubtedly be a major part of Easley’s address. Human service advocates continue to point out that programs that provide vital services to thousands of people cannot be cut again without hurting many families and children.

What if Easley and lawmakers could think of a way to spend $50 million and create more than 3,000 jobs, leverage $200 million of private investment in the state, increase local and state tax revenues by more than $30 million and help 6,000 families? Would they jump at the chance, even rush a bill through the House and Senate to put people to work?

It sure would make it easier if the proposal didn’t call for complicated new tax credits for one company, or the creation of a new agency or commission or foundation to invest that $50 million. It might help if the program already existed and been supported by Republicans and Democrats since its creation in 1987.

The proposal exists, the massive investment opportunity is right before lawmaker’s eyes. It is the North Carolina Housing Trust Fund that provides low-interest loans to builders and developers to make it possible for them to build affordable housing. The Trust Fund currently receives $3 million dollars a year, which is absurd, given both the need for affordable housing and the ripple effects the Trust Fund can have throughout North Carolina’s still ailing economy.

The $3 million fund level borders on a scandal, especially when you consider that there are close to 800,000 people in the state who pay more than 50 percent of their income for housing. Most banks and the federal government recommend that a household spend no more than 30 percent on rent or a mortgage.

There are plenty of other numbers to describe what is clearly an affordable housing crisis in the state. A family must earn $60,000 a year to afford the average-priced home in North Carolina. The median income in the state is just over $38,000.

So let’s see, we have a crisis that affects the lives of hundreds of thousands of people, an established program that would address it and at the same create jobs and spur private investment to jump start the economy. This ought to be the easiest decision legislators make all year.

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This entry was posted on Thursday, February 10th, 2005 at 6:19 pm and is filed under Fitzsimon File. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.