#165 Spring 2011 — Fair Housing

A Windfall for Los Angeles Landlords “Burdened” with Rent Control

A Los Angeles councilman says rent control places undue burdens on landlords and proposes a plan to reduce their tax burden.

Courtesy of Coalition for Economic Survival

Landlords of LA rent-controlled buildings like this could see lighter tax levies.

Could landlords of rent-controlled buildings be exempted from paying city business taxes? Los Angeles City Councilman Bernard Parks is proposing just that, or at least reducing those taxes. Parks, who says rent control places undue burdens on landlords, has indicated that this proposal could also apply to those landlords who agree to affordable rents for federally subsidized tenants.

According to a recent study published by the California Apartment Association, landlords of rent-controlled units pay an estimated $14 million a year in business taxes — a figure that has tenants rights advocates worried that a tax break for landlords would represent a shortfall for city programs that benefit, among others, rent-controlled tenants. The LA chapter of the CAA supports Parks’s initiative, saying it would help landlords finance building repairs. Considering there’s nothing in the proposal that requires that the savings be directed toward repairs, we’ll file this assertion under “skeptical.”

OTHER ARTICLES IN THIS ISSUE

  • The Rising Tide of Bank Protests

    March 30, 2011

    Despite Dodd-Frank and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, distrust for the banking industry in the United States remains palpable, and now we’re beginning to see a sustained, organized counterattack. Bank […]

  • Integrating Schools Is a Matter of Housing Policy

    March 30, 2011

    Inclusionary zoning and economic integration in suburban neighborhoods not only reduces concentration of poverty, it directly improves low-income children’s academic achievement. 

  • Planning on Shrinking

    March 30, 2011

    It’s time to understand that shrinkage is no longer somebody else’s problem.