My First Day
The "Family First" Tax: My First Day in Office
As someone with a Master’s in Economics, let me tell you: that is a lazy answer used by people who are too comfortable to lead. Yes, supply matters. But who is demanding the supply?
Right now, a young couple in Sandy isn't just competing against another family. They are competing against multi-billion-dollar investment firms using low-interest credit lines to snap up "entry-level" homes before they even hit Zillow.
The Math of the Monopoly
When a corporation buys a home, they aren't looking for a place to raise kids. They are looking for an asset with a high Internal Rate of Return (IRR). Because they can buy in bulk, they can outbid you by $20,000 without blinking. They then turn around and rent that same house back to you at a markup.
This isn't a "free market." This is an extraction economy. They are extracting wealth from Utah families and sending it to shareholders in New York and California.
My Solution: The Corporate Ownership Surcharge
If I’m in office, we aren't going to just "ask nicely" for them to stop. We are going to make it mathematically unprofitable for them to treat our neighborhoods like a vending machine.
The Homestead Exemption: If you live in the house, your property tax stays low. We protect the roof over your head.
The Tiered Corporate Tax: If an entity owns more than a specific number of single-family residential units in Utah, their tax rate should skyrocket.
The Math: By increasing the carrying cost for these "institutional landlords," we lower their IRR. When it’s no longer a "guaranteed win" for a hedge fund, they’ll stop buying. The houses go back on the market. The prices stabilize.
Why Nobody is Doing This
It’s simple: Urgency is the enemy of the elite. They want to study this for another ten years while your rent goes up another 40%. They say "it’s complicated."
It’s not. It’s a choice.
We can choose to have a state full of renters beholden to an app, or we can choose to have a state full of homeowners who have a stake in their community. I’m choosing the families. I’m choosing the science of a stable middle class over the "reasoning" of a corporate lobbyist.
We have the data. We have the solution. Now, we just need to stop being afraid of the people who sign the big checks and start caring about the people who sign the back of our kids' permission slips.
