In another edition of government sticking its nose where it doesn’t belong, the City of Raleigh has given initial approval to a new program that requires property owners to register with the City and pay a $30 per unit fee to have the right to engage in the private business transaction of renting their property to another individual. (WRAL story here).
If I decide to rent a house I own to someone else, it is none of government’s business.
The City is selling the program as a way to cutdown on landlord’s who tolerate crime to occur on their property. But isn’t that just a small fraction of the people renting property? Why penalize the vast majority of tenants/landlords who are doing no harm to anyone? Why regulate something that isn’t really that much of a problem?
The only logical explanation is the City sees this as another way to raise revenue outside of increasing taxes.
The costs will naturally be passed on to renters in higher rent costs — hitting those who can least afford it the most. How very progressive of this modern City of Raleigh — needlessly increase the cost of housing!
What’s next? A proposal to increase the regressive sales tax by 1 cent? Oh, wait.
And just what are they going to do with the money raised from the new fees? Hire the people to enforce the new rules! "City officials estimated the fees would raise about $775,000, which would be used to hire people to enforce the new rules."
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