On March 20, a slew of Senate Commerce bills regarding Housing were fought valiantly by Bedford Senator Denise Ricciardi. She managed to kill SB55 but of the ones that passed, all did not get universal approval.
Example: SB84 – passed 13-10 (opposed by Republican Senators Ricciardi, Rochefort, Birdsell, Lang, Gray, Ward, Abbas, Gannon, Avard, and Altschiller, a Democrat). We assume those folks were opposed to others as well.
Our local taxpayer group has been fighting this since 2018. We had 1300 sign up to stop overriding local control. We have since been trying to educate the public, and about 15 other towns have joined us.
However, when these bills that passed the Senate hit the HOUSE, they will easily pass the stacked “Housing” committee that was created, and then will be placed on Consent and done with a voice vote where any opponents are drowned out. These committees are stacked with the bill’s sponsors, as Rep Turcotte mentioned in your recent podcast.
We have to find House members that are willing to pull these bills from Consent and take a roll call vote!
We’ve also spoken to the Governor’s office and told them that Kelly needs to VETO some of these bills because she does not understand the unintended consequences of ‘solving the housing crisis’ (one of her campaign promises) which are:
- These bills chip away at local control, which is people voting in their own towns on how they want their towns to be organized
- Prevents towns from controlling their own growth w/regard to services
- One-size-fits-all central planning is not good for 254 towns that are all different with different needs and wants
- Raises taxes on SF zoned homes because apartments are often given tax subsidies and do not have to pay property taxes for 9 years and even when they start paying taxes, I am told by my town council that they never pay their fair share even when they do start paying
- Will eradicate all SF zoned areas eventually, the ultimate goal of those who think this is about ‘property rights’. They would even like to outlaw HOAs
- None of this stuff helps the supposed ‘housing crisis’ and removes choices
As for being bi-partisan, last year the bill that would have eradicated SF zones that Senator Ricciardi killed in the Senate (HB1291) had been voted on by roll call in the House and was a ‘yes’ vote by the 68 GOP Reps and 152 Dem Reps.
The list is of those GOPers is here (some were not re-elected, two went to Senate) and those are who I suggest targeting when these bills come to the House.
Bottom line is, this housing stuff is Bolshevik and never should have been put into the GOP platform. That was the excuse given in the Senate when they argued that they should pass.
Here is my Interview with Rep. Len Turcotte on these zoning bills
We’d like to thank Jane Aitken for this Op-Ed. As a reminder, authors’ opinions are their own and may not represent those of Grok Media, LLC, GraniteGrok.com, its sponsors, readers, authors, or advertisers. Submit Op-Eds to steve@granitegrok.com
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