I’ve oft stated that America is far more interested in butt control than gun control. Fortunately, those issues are now taking care of themselves. An increasing number of people are losing weight quickly by having their asses shot off.
Two down, two to go. God hisself apparently bans all birth control because millennia of twisted old white guys have talked to God and found out this is so, at least according to God’s current public relations agencies.
Last but not least among us, greedy rent gouging has been epidemic in Nevada since the Great Recession eased up. (It ain’t over ‘til it’s over.)
I put out a mass e-bulletin last Friday trying to get Nevada lawmakers to save Senate Bill 398 and Assembly Bill 399. The first, sponsored by Sen. Julia Ratti, D-Sparks, would allow local governments more leeway in affordable housing. “Rent” and “control” are not mentioned.
AB 399 sponsored by Assemblymember Ellen Spiegel, D-Henderson, represents the first mild attempt to do something about payday loan vampires by starting state-sponsored employee savings accounts for workers without retirement options. Non-penalty withdrawal could have made a small dent in payday loan desperation.
Both bills died of neglect at midnight last Friday. Neither even got a committee hearing despite AB399 being personally pushed by Lt. Gov. Kate Marshall. The proposals might return as “emergency” measures. Watch for hailstorms in hell.
Back to Plan A, Rentvolution.org. I pulled an all-nighter last week because I’ve seen the desperation of those facing the street or already on it. The people responded, including good landlords and some media types.
A cruel Sun Valley realtor wrote that what I proposed was dumb, illegal and that Nevada has plenty of legal protection for renters. Fantasyland. She insisted she can do whatever she wants with her own property, so I hope she invites me to the street drags, motorcycle races and the groundbreaking of her new high-rise kiddy daycare center, all of which apparently need no government approval.
If her renters don’t like it, they can move, she snorted. A motel tenant I interviewed just got the same blast of unoriginal moral obtuseness. (I used “If you don’t like it, move!” as the headline of an ad 41 years ago on this same issue.)
Good responses outnumbered bad. Please volunteer because it’s time to move rent increase justification forward. The free market gets neutered during boomtown shortages. As Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., said last month: “I believe in markets, but markets without regulation become thievery.”
Turn on, tune in and get involved. Read my full bulletin to lawmakers at Barbwire.US, then sign up because time’s up. Lives are on the line.
RENO BANKRUPTCY. I’ve warned about this for more than a decade. The city is again near default on the debt (originally about $260 million) to build the downtown railroad trench for the Carano family hotels and Harrah’s. I recently sent some city union guys the latest travails of Germany’s shaky Deutschebank which is about to undergo a forced merger. DB and Goldman Sachs own Reno’s debt. Will German Chancellor Angela Merkel insist that DB start collecting bad debts?
Reno Gazette-Journal coverage last Sunday was almost booster-club superficial. City Hall is talking about refinancing, including taking on new public debt to pay the Reno Aceholes baseball billionaires their overdue $1 million a year retainer they required just to move the team here. The Black Tower built them a stadium for free on the city’s credit card.
Tax increases on downtown properties haven’t been covering all that hock. I wonder if the Reno paper will print that a prime reason lies with casinos cutting their own taxes by gaming the assessment system where their market value is determined by cash flow rather than market value like residences.
Sparks is in almost as shaky financial condition, so it appears that both my predictions of municipal bankruptcies are coming true, albeit a bit overdue. See the Corporate Welfare Archives at NevadaLabor.com/
Meanwhile, new apartments at ground zero of City of Sparks financial distress, the Marina corporate welfare project, range from $1400 to almost $3,000 a month.
Rent justification, anyone?
¡Sí se puede!
Be well. Raise hell. Esté bien. Haga infierno.
Andrew Barbano is a 50-year Nevadan and editor of NevadaLabor.com. E-mail barbano@frontpage.reno.nv.us Barbwire by Barbano has originated in the Tribune since 1988.
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