OPINION: Renee Mello, president of the Santa Cruz County Association of Realtors, argues that Measure B is a transparent, citizen-led effort to fund affordable housing and climate projects. She criticizes Measure C as an “insider” initiative engineered by Santa Cruz City Hall to skirt the two-thirds supermajority required for special taxes.
Renee Mello
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
Why Santa Cruz realtors are against the Workforce Housing Solutions Act – setting the record straight
The Santa Cruz County Association of Realtors opposes Santa Cruz Mayor Fred Keeley’s Workforce Housing Solutions Act, which is gathering signatures for the November ballot. The organization supports affordable housing, writes Renee Mello, the group’s president, but believes the proposed “double tax” – which would put an annual $96 parcel tax on most lots throughout the city of Santa Cruz, and an additional tax on homes sold for more than $1.8 million – would make selling homes too burdensome. “If this measure were only a parcel tax, we may have taken a position of support, but unfortunately this was not the case,” she writes.