More apartments coming
Casino spurs more apartments
So I was on the edge of my seat last night, watching every thrilling twist and turn of the 1/23/2008 Middleboro Board Of Selectman meeting, when something interesting actually happened. The BOS were going through the yearly budgets with each department head. Generally the department head would give an overview after which the BOS would question specific line items to better understand the request budget.
Anyway, the head of the Building Dept. made his presentation, listed the pending residential developments in town(there were some 200 or so), and outlined the challenges he faces with the current staffing levels. As an aside, he mentioned that there was a 30-something acre property behind Adam’s Circle off of Anderson Ave. There are currently 28 apartment units there, and the owner recently told him that he wanted to build 80 more out back due to the resort casino. There is a video of this at the end of the post – the reward for slogging through my bloviations.
Everything is coming up roses
I know that when you put on pro-casino rose-colored glasses, all the low wage workers magically reside in Taunton or Brockton due to the lack of affordable housing in Middleboro. Well guess what folks: Middleboro has a lot of land – that’s why the casino came. What makes you all think that those 10,000+ jobs will not spur residential growth? It’s supply and demand. Our current stock of residential/rental property represents the current demand. When there are 10,000 workers off of Precinct Street, the demand will increase and by necessity so will the supply.
I hate to say “I told you so” … well not really
This is one of those costs that CasinoFacts.org has been talking about all this time. More residents means more kids in the school system, more roads to maintain, more sewer/water to take care of, more demand for police/fire/ems, and more work for each and every department in town. This leads to more town employees and yet more cost. In the case of this one group of apartments, I’m going to guestimate that this will lead to about 34 extra children in the school system. I get this number with this math: Approximately 24% of Massachusetts residents are children. Let’s say these 80 apartments will contain 160 people. If the average holds, 34 of these 160 people will be children under the age of 18. At $9,938 per student, that’s $337,000 in education costs alone. This is just one small development on one small piece of land introducing more cost.
How much more cost? I don’t know for sure. And neither do the people that sent us down this road without sufficient public input. This highlights why our deal is so poor. We are being paid an essentially fixed amount of money when we have no idea what our costs will be or how much those costs will increase in the future.
Or as Representative Tom Calter described the deal: “A fixed revenue stream and variable costs”. Translation: We got taken. Lacking any decent numbers, let’s assume our cost will be something similar to what a commercial facility would pay us. And that’s twice as much as we’re getting. Oh happy day.
Make sure you notice the “Oh crap” moment of silence by the BOS after learning about the 80 new apartments.
Hi
I was wondering when you do your math I see the Casino paying for everything.
Say 80 more units of Housing at
300k per New House say 15.00 per tax rate. That comes out too say 360k
add in all other monies, excise,permits,even a dog fee. Thats alot of revenue can’t those numbers be added in to the revenue stream. Why does the resort money have to pay for everything. Like there is no other revenue stream from these new properties never mind all the new business industry that will want to be involved with the resort.
Mike – residential housing is a net cost for the town.
If you don’t believe me why don’t you go talk to one of the pro-casino people you trust.
This is common knowledge.
Rental housing is the biggest looser for the town, Mr. Limo.
1. You might want to check with Raynham and ask them about their rental housing stock.
2. Look at what you pay in real estate taxes for your home. It doesn’t even pay for a single child in the school system.
3. There will be a net loss of businesses. It’s been proven.
Quite right Nanny.
Mike – I’ll amend my statement about residential property being a net loss.
With sufficiently high property taxes, the average house could pay for itself when kids and services are factored in. Rental property is a town budget buster and I will add that few towns have “sufficiently high” property taxes.
That is precisely why towns are so hot to attract commercial investment – they generally make out on the deal. This allows them to keep property taxes down.
But essentially my statement stands – that residential property and particularly rental property is a $$ loser for towns.
You can add to that from a previous Brockton Enterprise article where it is stated that “speculators” were searching for places to put in apartments. They know where the money could be at for them. Developer wins. Owner wins. Town loses.
But essentially my statement stands – that residential property and particularly rental property is a $$ loser for towns.
Mr. Bumpkin, what I would hope to encourage is for Mr. Limo to do a review of his own in his home town of those numbers.
While he has criticized others for the dull and boring statistics, that’s where the truth lies.
What the Middleboro Building Commissioner indicated is just the BEGINNING.
Those low wage casino employees will live in Middleboro. They will impact the at capacity school system.
Sometimes, when one is so convinced of the correctness of one’s beliefs, one fails to see the truth.
As a single family homeowner with three children ( two of which are in the school system) I am completely aware that the town loses money on me.
I pay 3,500 per year in RE taxes; my kids cost at least 14,000.
Simple math.
If the casino doesn’t chase me out of town and I spend my life here, eventually I will pay in more than my family draws, as I will theoretically still be paying taxes to the school when I am ready to retire. That’s the was it is designed to work.
That being said, IMO:
Christmas tree shop expansion= GREAT!
Casino = UNIMAGINALLY BAD!
There seems to be a curious phenomena that some folks who are discussing this issue are ignoring.
1. As the housing market subsides, construction will be looking for places to build. And moneyed developers will be focusing on potential sites/towns.
2. There is enough land in Middleboro with town services, zoned for multiple occupancy dwellings to choke a horse.
3. There is enough land in Middleboro with town services to construct low income slab ranches or high density condos or low cost rentals.
4. The more expensive McMansion dwellers will be the first to leave. Only a few of those homes need to be purchased in a neighborhood for ‘hot bedding’ to convert the entire neighborhood.
(Higher income earners left the towns surrounding the CT casinos first.)
5. What’s in the 40B pipeline for state approval?
To those who poo-poo the impending disaster, take a look at the zoning map and the map of town services. Pretty ominous!
Rep. Tom Calter wasn’t far off the mark with his explanation of how bad this deal is for Middleboro.
Why would a worker live in Brockton or New Bedford when they could walk to work in Middleboro for nothing?
OK, so I talked to the wife about taxes and our house,schools etc I see your point. Somewhere in the equation you have to add in houses that get taxed and have no kids in school system.
So you want business to come in but really all towns do not want residental development.
If I opened a business Id hope some of my employees were local.
As mark said Middleboro has land housing is coming one way or another its the planning.
Let more business in to help offset the demand.
Can Middleboro buy up land for town use as to stop housing?
Turn it into conservation land like Wareham did or wanted too.
I feel the companies will come to support the resort. they have too.
…The educational costs to tax payers are likely to be even higher then recognized in this dialog. Special Education teachers for ESL students and other educational specialists are extremely expensive. New schools will have to be built, as our schools are already at capacity. Transportation costs will be significant as new buses will be needed to service the additional student volume – plus fuel costs will rise annually. I’m struggling as it is – I can’t absorb paying more in property taxes. The developers will become very wealthy at my expense while exploiting poorly written Indian Gaming laws. This is wrong.
Can Middleboro buy up land for town use as to stop housing?
Turn it into conservation land like Wareham did or wanted too.
Mr. Limo, Wareham passed CPA with their great foresight.
That is the Conservation Protection Act that allows towns to add a pittance to your real estate tax bill, BUT that pittance is matched 50% with state funds to purchase property.
Where can ANYONE accumulate funds and guarantee that kind of return?
Middleboro in their short-sightedness, defeated CPA by 2:1.
If you look at the towns that passed CPA, you’ll discover that ALL of the wealthier towns passed it early on. That in itself to tell you what a bargain they recognized.
That being said, Middleboro IS AT ITS LEVY LIMIT as far as borrowing.
That’s it!
And Middleboro’s poor fiscal management has also reduced its bond rating. That means Middleboro pays more to borrow money, just as those sub-prime borrowers did for their home mortgages.
You might want to check out Moody’s for bond ratings of towns. Those numbers, though dull and boring, mean that it cost the town more tax dollars to pay debt.
Mr. Limo, as a footnote, it should be noted that when Waste Management assumes the operation of the Middleboro landfill, they will pay off the $3 million that was borrowed for that project.
In addition, there should be additional FAM (financial assurance mechanism) funds that become available.
Were you a Middleboro resident and able to watch the Selectmen’s meetings on ComCast, you would see the department heads already laying claim to those funds and announcing their needs.
Should the BOS support expending up to that limit, yet again, it is much like maxxing out your credit cards.
Both of the last 2 auditing firms and the Department of Revenue have criticized Middleboro for spending one time revenues to pay for current expenses.
Two years ago, the town used FAM money to balance the budget.
This year, proceeds from the land auctions were used to balance the budget and re-hire personnel.
That’s like spending your rainy day fund to buy food.
So, there will be no cushion to buy any land that should be preserved.