NJ Spotlight published the following article on September 12, 2014. To read the full article, click here.
CONDITIONAL VETO COULD GUT AFFORDABLE-HOUSING POLICIES, ADVOCATES SAY
Governor argues that it’s time for Legislature to significantly revise New Jersey’s landmark law
Housing advocates are decrying a proposal by Gov. Chris Christie that would allow municipalities — rather than the state — to set their own affordable-housing goals, essentially gutting a nearly 30-year-old housing program that was mandated by the courts.
Christie did this by conditionally vetoinga housing-fee moratorium Wednesday that had nearly unanimous, bipartisan support in both houses of the state Legislature and was touted as a way to jumpstart the state’s construction industry. The fee — imposed on commercial development to pay for construction of affordable housing and rehabilitation of older units – was viewed as a tax that deterred development.
Kevin Walsh, director of the Fair Share Housing Center in Cherry Hill, which advocates for construction of low-income housing units, said the governor likely does not expect his proposal to make it through the Legislature. Walsh said Christie’s goal is probably to use the housing fee to force the Legislature to eliminate the affordable-housing rules.
Vetoing the fee moratorium, Walsh said, can have positive short-term consequences, because it reduces the amount of money generated for local trust funds. In a sense, he said, the governor “is doing something that is temporarily good for lower-income households, so that he can destroy the overall system that helps them.”