Wednesday, March 14

If there are no homes for children,
children will have no homes.

Okay, I'm about to get pissy here.

‘Vasectomy Housing’ Surges as New Jersey Tax Remedy

Turns out it is so "expensive" (seriously, don't get me started) to educate a child in New Jersey that the "solution" is to deny housing permits to builders who are NOT EXCLUDING CHILDREN from their "lifestyle communities."

Hands on knees, breathe in, breathe out. I've been doing it all day.

With the cost of educating a child in New Jersey’s public schools averaging $12,567 a year, the highest in the nation and more than double the property tax parents typically pay, local governments in the state are pursing age-restricted housing to expand the tax base without the expense of higher enrollment.

Nationwide, 2.8 million households were part of age-restricted communities in 2005, up 29% from 2001. The number in New Jersey grew 37% in the same period. More than half the housing units started in the state in the past two years have excluded children... [emphasis mine, do you mind?]

Developers, who can make more money building unrestricted housing, sometimes find it’s more difficult to get those plans approved, said Patrick O’Keefe, chief executive officer of the [New Jersey homebuilder's] association. “It’s almost a prerequisite that a project pass the child-exclusion test before a planning board will consider it,” he said.


The nation's leading builder of McMansion lifestyle communities, Toll Brothers, lists six "community types" they offer at their website: Luxury Home, Future, Active Lifestyle, Golf, Resort, and Urban Living. While they mention "single family" homes, anything in New Jersey under three hundred thousand (and there ain't much) is two bedroom only. But hey, nice to see with the "Active Lifestyle" community types they're also excluding the Depends and Wheelchair demographic. Equal housing and all that shit.



Here's an entryway from the Toll Brothers website, which I have taken the liberty of labelling as more child-friendly to meet the needs of my ever-expanding "lifestyle":

1. Kiwi-Strawberry Go-Gurt stain (dry)
2. Toaster Waffle from Sunday under stairs
3. Rounded toddler-poop in sunken bath (Cheese Puff Edition)
4. Play Doh enhanced Leather Sofa
5. Many designer options here: Dora doll, hot wheels car, abandoned Slinky, ballerina shoe. - contact homewrecker builder.
6. "Special home for Barbie" in fireplace - Standard
7. Designer Custom kitchen smells like chicken (nuggets). Fingerprints standard.
8. Ersatz "washable" crayon available at extra cost - contact homewrecker builder.

Impact on city council revenue: Negative
Impact of educated parents raising educated children on our society: Priceless

If there weren't certain New Jersey teachers actually teaching out there...oops, sorry they're busy with NCLB testing, nevermind.

16 comments:

  1. years ago when looking for another apartment we were at our wits end because we were told time after time that for a bit larger security deposit they would take us and our dog, but no to our daughter who was entering 3rd grade at the time.
    we couldn't find a suitable apt. so we ended up buying a house that we could ill afford at the time.
    it's only gotten worse.
    sad, sad, and wrong.

    by the way, flowers for you over at my place.

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  2. I'm not sure why, but this surprises me given the Governor is Jon Corzine ... and I've always thought of him as one of the good guys.


    BAC

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  3. That is truly insane. I presume this is from the same 'family values' folks who think that birth control should be illegal. Can I also presume that the Religious Reight are exempt, since their kids will go to denialist schools to learn that the world is only 6,000 years old? That can't be right, things couldn't have gotten this bad in so short a time.

    Well, I'm off to get my hypocrisy meter repaired.. ..again. The poor thing is always having to deal with enormous overloads.

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  4. Thanks for the bunchy panties OG. I noticed from you link there are females using pink makeup on their nipples, and the one about runway fashion for men that takes a page out of orthodox Jewish garb. Special!

    RE bunchy panties, the blog has a comment by "Edward" who says "I will definatley wear them!" [sic] Maybe we can get bunchy panties with a spell check.

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  5. Anonymous2:08 PM

    You can decompress. The article is misleading, and lobbyist Patrick O'Keefe of the NJ Builders Association never heard a lie he wouldn't repeat and expand.

    In fact, most of the new housing in NJ is mandated affordable housing which cannot legally exclude children.

    Any uptick in age-restricted housing is strictly a market reaction to the overall aging of the population (boomers).

    Yeah, housing is expensive here in NJ -- ALL housing. Any Planning Board that thinks that age-restricting is going to save money hasn't had to deal with their volunteer rescue squad members.

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  6. Any uptick in age-restricted housing is strictly a market reaction to the overall aging of the population (boomers).

    But WHY does the market demand age-restriction? This may be homebuilder's propaganda, I grant you, but I think there's also a lot of boomer greed "I got my kids educated on the public dime, now you go get yours post-NCLB, and do it someplace else, I've gotta go play golf."

    And God forbid we should reform the tax structure, the boomers need that money for their greens fees.

    I'm painting this very black and white here and I know there is a lot of gray. I know that. But children in this society are poor as compared to the boomers and it just ain't right.

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  7. If there weren't certain New Jersey teachers actually teaching out there...oops, sorry they're busy with NCLB testing, nevermind.

    Can't imagine who you mean...

    "I got my kids educated on the public dime, now you go get yours post-NCLB, and do it someplace else, I've gotta go play golf."

    EX-ACT-LY. And that's just what will happen in my twon in the Garden State next month. We have a couple of these age-restricted "communities" in my little town, and it's killing us. That and the fact that 1) many parents with kids in the schools don't bother to vote on school budget ballots, and 2) 40% of the TEACHERS WHO LIVE IN OUR DISTRICT, on average, don't vote, either.

    Workin' on that second one. Sorry I raised my voice there.

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  8. *in my TOWN* Sorry. Bad day when the writin teachr Kan't spel.

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  9. As a proud product of public schools, I would just like to point out how "free education" is a total misnomer and all the fees attached to being able to attend school used to cause my father no small amount of consternation.

    Granted, it's nothing compared to the tutition that families with means pay out but it still flies in the face of this so-called free education system that we are supposed to provide for all children, leaving none of them behind in the process.

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  10. And God forbid we should reform the tax structure, the boomers need that money for their greens fees.

    I'm painting this very black and white here and I know there is a lot of gray. I know that. But children in this society are poor as compared to the boomers and it just ain't right.


    I'd say you were spot on there, BG.

    And let's not be too quick to bash Corzine. He seems to be trying, and this is an almost impossible mess. Almost.

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  11. Anonymous6:09 PM

    But WHY does the market demand age-restriction? This may be homebuilder's propaganda, I grant you, but I think there's also a lot of boomer greed "I got my kids educated on the public dime, now you go get yours post-NCLB, and do it someplace else, I've gotta go play golf."

    And God forbid we should reform the tax structure, the boomers need that money for their greens fees.

    I'm painting this very black and white here and I know there is a lot of gray. I know that. But children in this society are poor as compared to the boomers and it just ain't right.


    BG: I agree with you that this is part of a disturbing trend of catering to the needs of Boomers, particularly those with some wealth, at the expense of children.

    As the population ages, I find that the same group of people who busted out of tradition in the 60s and 70s are still very self-centric and want all kinds of laws passed that restrict younger people's access to public spaces.

    Housing is both a money and a control issue for them.

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  12. Anonymous11:01 PM

    Towns don't want to shell out for public schooling,
    Boomers don't want to curtail their golfing,
    Children don't want to live under bridges.

    This is a splendid example of the politics of division. Get the Blacks to blame the Hispanics, get the working slobs to blame the welfare slackers, get the boomers pissed at those pesky young families with kids. Meanwhile, our tax money is being transfered at a historically unprecedented rate to the Filthy Friggin' Rich.

    Corporate "welfare" for Fortune Five Hundred entities costs taxpayers several times what social welfare programs do, yet most working folks complain only about the latter.

    I say take back the money we throw at Haliburton and fully fund public education through college. Canada does it, England does it, the list goes on.

    It's a matter of priorities.

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  13. Anonymous9:34 AM

    * ahem *

    Boomer here. We aren't all selfish, kid-hating golfers. Some of us strongly support high-quality public education for all children, not just our own, and we don't mind paying the taxes for it.

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  14. Anonymous10:57 AM

    Hi Kathy,

    Just in case your "defense of some boomers" comment was in response to this:
    "Towns don't want to shell out for public schooling,
    Boomers don't want to curtail their golfing,
    Children don't want to live under bridges."

    I was referring to the common perceptions bandied about by Society At Large. Sorry about the over-generalization.

    And if you weren't referring to my comment... (*small voice*) never mind!

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  15. I'm missing something here. If towns create housing for people who don't have kids, don't those residents pay the same property taxes as those who do? So by creating age-restricted housing doesn't that help the schools because the child-less people (who pay property taxes, but don't use the schools) are in effect subsidizing those with children?

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  16. Anonymous3:09 PM

    Not in NJ, but the last time any of the kids in my family(and I'm talking about 3 kids, 1 with two children in turn and two without)attended a public school was 1969. All three of us own property on which we pay school taxes, as did our parents before they died. Do we all get some kind of perk or refund for contribution without use times four for almost 40 years?

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