JUST SAY "NO" TO LOCAL PROFFERS

(The following was published in The Richmond (Va.) Times-Dispatch on 12/21/16 as "Correspondent of the Day.")

I enjoyed your Monday article about legislative restrictions for local proffers, which are unconstitutional and should be entirely banned.

Proffers imposed by multiple jurisdictions become a "pass-through" cost because buyers cannot "shop around" to avoid them.  Developers must bear the onerous up-front burden of proffers, but ultimately they are passed on to buyers as an "entry fee" for the "privilege" of living in such communities.  No one should have to pay an "entry fee" to live anywhere in this country they wish.  Most existing owners did not suffer any proffers; neither should new owners.  If SOME of the buyers of the newly developed properties happen to be older locals seeking to "downsize" by moving to a smaller house or townhouse, why should those people have to pay such an "entry fee" to stay where they already are?

There is a very real cash squeeze being felt by local jurisdictions as the land tax yields smaller or stagnant revenues due to dropping or stagnant property values in many places.  It is past time for localities to shift to a local income tax instead, but that won't likely be allowed by the Virginia General Assembly anytime in the foreseeable future.  Many large rural tracts of land are owned by relatively few folks with substantial incomes getting subsidies of artificially lowered land taxes (the so-called "land-use tax") that fictionally depreciates the actual market value of their lands.  Meanwhile, local government budgeting is a "zero-sum game" since they cannot print their own money.  Those who do not qualify for those subsidies, like ordinary residential owners and cash-strapped businesses, must make up the revenue differences created by those unwarranted subsidies out of their own pockets.