Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Palm Beach newcomers must review housing plan
The two new members of the Palm Beach County Commission have an early chance to make their outsider status pay off for the public.
Republicans Marcia Woodward in District 4 and Sara Baxter in District 6 had much less money than their Democratic opponents. Robert Weinroth received nearly $416,000 in campaign contributions, nine times what Woodward raised. Baxter had $120,000 compared to Michelle McGovern’s $416,000.
Woodward and Baxter were first-time hopefuls with comparatively little name recognition. But they pulled off major upsets, helped by high Republican turnout and Democratic apathy. The Sun Sentinel did not endorse Woodward or Baxter, but we agree with them on one very important issue: the $200 million affordable housing bond that voters approved last week.
Woodward and Baxter opposed the bond issue, and they were right.
The wrong solution
Everyone agrees that the county, like most in Florida, doesn’t have enough workforce housing. The pandemic migration to South Florida turned a serious problem into a crisis.
County commissioners responded with a ballot question authorizing the county to issue as much as $200 million in bonds to build some of that needed housing. That was it. Nothing in the ballot language explained how the program would work or where the housing would go.
When we interviewed Weinroth, he acknowledged that commissioners would decide how to spend the money. While he disagreed with our characterization of the program as a slush fund for favored developers, he acknowledged that outsiders might see it that way.
Consider how the program came to be.
Bond issue created by developers
As the Palm Beach Post reported, a consortium of builders designed the program. They rejected any ideas that might have meant taking money from developers. Better to tax the public.
Then, a committee called the Hometown Housing Trust launched a campaign to pass the bond program. The group’s ads claimed that, unless voters approved it, teachers and first responders might start leaving the county.
It all seemed very civic-minded. But consider who was behind the Hometown Housing Trust. The group raised nearly $1 million, mostly from developers, landuse lawyers and others whose livelihood depends on the building industry.
In late October, Hometown Housing Trust received $50,000 from a committee called The People Versus the Powerful. It isn’t even in Florida. It’s in the San Francisco suburb of San Rafael and its only contributor is the short-term rental giant Airbnb. “Hometown?” Hardly.
Many local development interests have helped to worsen the housing crisis. Example: GL Homes, which specializes in highend housing, gave $25,000.
But GL was one of several companies that bypassed requirements to include affordable units in their projects. They did so because Palm Beach County allows them to pay a fee instead of building the units. The county closed that loophole, but the damage remains.
One vote needed
Baxter and Woodward will take their seats on Tuesday. One of their colleagues, Maria Marino, voted against putting the bond program on the ballot. The other dissenter, Melissa McKinlay, is term-limited (Baxter is her replacement).
Do the math: That’s three votes against the program on the seven-member commission. Baxter, Marino and Woodward must persuade one other commissioner to have a skeptical majority.
As we see it, the ballot language said only that commissioners may issue the bonds if they want. They don’t have to issue them.
Here’s something else for Baxter, Marino and Woodward to consider. Local governments generally issue bonds for public projects such as schools and police stations. The bonds would finance construction on private property. Is that legal? There likely would be a strong backlash if the commission hesitated to set the program in motion or imposed tough standards. But if the new skeptics on the commission want to buck the establishment, this is their moment.
The Post also reported that county officials supported this approach because the business sector would go along. Those officials likely worried that industry opposition could defeat the program.
Now, however, voters have approved a program that seems like a public subsidy for developers, just as higher interest rates push down demand for market-priced homes.
The new Palm Beach County Commission should give this program the scrutiny it didn’t get before the election.
The Sun Sentinel Editorial Board consists of Editorial Page Editor Steve Bousquet, Deputy Editorial Page Editor Dan Sweeney, and Editor-in-Chief Julie Anderson. Editorials are the opinion of the Board and written by one of its members or a designee. To contact us, email at letters@sun-sentinel.com.