County scales back developer "stimulus" plan

The county's plan to reduce road and impact fees just got quite the hair cut:

Faced with heavy public opposition to a perceived bailout, Clark County commissioners Tuesday sharply scaled back a plan to let some developments escape a big fee hike that had been scheduled since 2007.

The deal will effectively restrict its benefits only to developers who already have engineering plans for roads and pipes and are on the cusp of final construction.

There's a couple of quotes worth highlighting here, first from Marc Boldt:

Commissioner Marc Boldt said Tuesday that commissioners plan to meet with representatives of Umpqua Bank, Riverview Community Bank, First Independent Bank, several credit unions and perhaps the Greater Vancouver Chamber of Commerce, to assure them that the county is trying to approve projects smoothly and to urge lenders to extend credit to major projects.

"It's up to you, lenders, to make our county viable," Boldt said.

Right, it's up to the lenders, since the county commission long ago abrogated any responsibility for actually diversifying the economic base around here.  Perma-bedroom community status is not a prescription for long term economic viability.  Umpqua Bank of course is the FDIC enforced successor to Bank of Clark County, which didn't work out all too well.

Every election cycle, commissioners run on a "good jobs" platform promising to reduce the number of commuters heading over to Oregon and then proceed to go out and approve more growth management changes favorable to the residential construction industry. When the hang over comes, as it is now with a vengeance, the county then has nothing to fall back on other than increased retail sales taxes.

Tom Mielke then chimes in with some contradictory babble regarding funding that actually helps out those who buy houses:

Also Tuesday, Mielke voted against renewing a $5,000 grant to the Vancouver-based Home Ownership Center, a nonprofit agency that offers free counseling to families trying to buy or remain in their homes.

The county can't afford it, Mielke said.

"$5,000 here, $5,000 there — pretty soon it becomes a real employee," Mielke said.

What's this?  Tom Mielke: defender of county government jobs?  So those promises during the campaign to increase government efficiency and reduce the overall size of government was just empty rhetoric?

In Mielke's formula, it's all about subsidizing the supply side while completely ignoring the demand side of the equation.  Luckily for county residents, Mielke was outvoted on this one.  You can develop more housing and subsidies for developers all you want, but if folks ain't buyin', you have a problem, I'm just sayin'.