☆ Measure A Mythbuster—Did County spend Measure A monies the way it promised? (2/7)

Depicted: Krishna, known for being a trickster and lover

In his continuing Opp Now exclusive series on dubious election-season assertions about Santa Clara County’s 2016 Measure A tax to address homelessness, former CM and small business owner Johnny Khamis asserts that the County fudged on its promise to voters by choosing to build new property from scratch—instead of buying on the open market.

Remember the Measure A ballot language, which asked “shall the County of Santa Clara issue up to $950 million in general obligation bonds to acquire or improve real property”.

Pay attention to those words "acquire or improve."

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According to the county’s own report, by December 5, 2023 only $96,724,369 of the $950,000,000 had been spent on acquiring and improving real properties.

Rather, the vast majority of Measure A funds—$647,835,399—has been promised or spent on developing various new housing developments from private developers or to supplement costs on projects from other municipalities, which have sunk large amounts of their taxpayers money to design and build in their cities. Funds from Measure A are used to help projects being developed by San Jose, Gilroy, Milpitas, and Morgan Hill...

The reason this fact is important is that building new developments costs taxpayers a whole lot more than “acquiring and improving” existing apartment complexes. When a local commercial real estate agent was asked how much it would cost to buy an existing apartment building, he quoted numbers that ranged between $425,000 and $550,000 per unit, depending on how much work it would cost to fix them and their locations. Conversely, the county has spent the vast majority of the Measure A funds helping developers build at a cost of $850,000 to $1,000,000 per unit.

It is not a myth to say that we need housing. But don’t tell voters one thing and do something that costs us twice as much.

Related:

• Measure A Mythbuster—How many units did Measure A itself actually build? (1/7)

• Would increasing local property taxes solve housing (un)affordability?

• Khamis: Why won't cities solve housing crises by buying on the cheap (instead of building extravagantly)?

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