When the city of Antioch needed help passing a half-cent sales tax last year, the California Apartment Association answered the call.
As CAA members generously supported the city’s Measure C campaign, the Antioch City Council chose not to place a residential landlord business license tax on the same ballot.
Thanks in part to the rental housing industry’s political support, the sales tax initiative sailed to victory in November, and Antioch began collecting additional revenue in April.
Through the measure, Antioch expects to collect a little over $4 million. The City Council promised to spend the money fighting crime, hiring 22 police officers.
How quickly city leaders forget, or perhaps ignore, the community partnership they enjoyed with CAA.
On Tuesday, June 24, Antioch City Manager Steven Duran accused the rental housing industry of making too much money while giving back little to the city.
The City Council then asked voters to pass a tax specifically for residential landlords — the same type of tax the council shelved last year when it needed the apartment industry’s help passing Measure C. The business license tax for landlords will appear on this November’s ballot.
The proposal would charge a $250 tax for each single-family rental home and $150 for each multi-housing unit. The tax would make landlords responsible for closing most of the city’s anticipated $3 million structural deficit.
In the video below, the city manager attempts to justify placing an outrageously disproportionate financial burden on landlords. At the same time, he dismisses CAA’s requests for further negotiations toward a broad-based, fair solution to the city’s budget shortfall.
If voters approve the landlord tax, some property owners will surely raise rents to cover the costs. Landlords with lower-income tenants won’t have that option and will either pay the tax out-of-pocket or divert dollars budgeted for apartment repairs and upgrades toward their new tax bill, which will cost tens of thousands of dollars for even mid-size complexes.
Unlike the sales tax, which everybody pays, the proposed landlord tax targets one segment of the business community to subsidize city-wide problems. Singling out residential landlords is not only unfair; it’s unconstitutional. CAA’s legal counsel told the city as much in a pair of letters prior to the council’s vote.
CAA is considering legal action while it prepares to fight the proposed landlord tax at the ballot box. Stay tuned for ways you can help.
Related coverage
- Antioch landlord tax formally adopted (Contra Costa Times)
- Antioch landlord tax gains council support (Contra Costa Times)