July 20, 2001
 
 We’re not sure what the sudden obsession is with new housing here - maybe our current crop of leaders wants to look like they’re doing something, so if they can use government funds to get housing developments going, that will give the illusion that our economy is improving. It isn’t, of course, but what the heck. There’s an election next year, so they have to do something.
 
 Given the fact that our leaders seem to fall somewhat short in the good idea department, we’ve come up with some suggestions for addressing housing in the area.
 
 Our first suggestion is pretty simple - concentrate on recruiting jobs to the area and the housing situation - whatever that actually is - will take care of itself. First comes the jobs, then comes the housing. Jobs, housing; jobs, housing. Get it? That’s how the private sector works.
 
 Beyond that, we have a few additional suggestions:
 
 • People moving to West Virginia. Guess what? Washington County faced a very similar situation several years ago. They took steps at the county level - working with the state within existing programs - to make development in Washington County more attractive. Why not look at what they did, as opposed to re-inventing the wheel and creating a program through which the state effectively subsidizes upper end housing developments, which is what Cas Taylor and Lee Fiedler want to do. Subsidize housing starts and you effectively depress the value of existing housing an subdivision lots throughout the county. Want your house to be worth less on the open market? Great! You’ll like Cas Taylor’s plan to have the state pay for infrastructure typically paid for by developers. Developers don’t pay for infrastructure, they can sell the lot/house for less than its value would be normally. That artificially lowers the values of houses across the board.
 
 • Retirement village. It looks like some enterprising private citizens have taken matters into their own hands, given the meeting at the Health Department earlier this week as reported in the Times-News. Good for them. As they apparently figured out, if the need is there, a PRIVATE developer will be glad to take on such a project. And it looks like we have at least three such developers who have stepped up to the plate. In terms of what our elected officials can do to assist these developers, they can help streamline the permitting process, for example. That’s “working with the developer.” Telling the developer that he never has to pay taxes or that government will provide all infrastructure needs is giving away the farm. Helping the developer is good; giving away the farm is bad. Bad, bad, bad. Get it?
 
 • Jump starting housing in town. The city can do this fairly easily. And again, you don’t have to re-invent the wheel. In worst case scenarios, the city can go in and purchase the property or retrieve it through tax sale. The city can then sell the building and its lot to a developer/private citizen for $1, with the provision that the new owner tear down the existing building and construct a new home worth a set amount of money within a set period of time. This will improve property values in city neighborhoods while increasing the city’s tax base at the same time.
 
 So, those are our suggestions for the “housing plan” that Cas Taylor and his buddies want to put together. So now they have public input, whether they want it or not.