By Joe Briggs
SUWANEE, Ga. | Today’s high heating, food, and housing costs should make us all think about what tools we might have to mitigate the issues and what to ask from our state legislators.
Briggs
It’s no mystery that the Atlanta-area housing cost is being pushed up by investor-owned rental housing buying up existing stock and building new developments. A recent JP Morgan announcement of plans to spend $1 billion in rental housing starting in Atlanta is cause for concern. It not only pushes the dream for home ownership out for young families, but drives up rental costs, straining the quality of life and ability to save.
What can state legislators do? They can limit and enforce the Georgia Homestead Exemption to owner-occupied. This will force corporate-owned housing to pay full property taxes, instead of getting a break from the owner not living in the house. That’s no household!
Yes, this higher tax will be passed on to the tenant but it will also challenge the underlying business model. These same neighborhoods of basic three bedroom, two bath homes being built for $2,400+ per month rentals should be being sold for $200,000 with a $1,400/month mortgage. Now THAT would save the person occupying it, if he could afford the up-front buying costs.
We should not be giving up the American dream to renters in Atlanta and turn into the “rent-forever reality” of other large cities.
While our state politicians campaign on green energy, they have done little of the hard, practical work to make it happen. This can reduce the cost of heating a home, making ownership easier. There are two key steps that could be helpful to increase solar power.
The first is legislation to override homeowner’s associations to allow solar panels and energy efficient roofing. The second is property tax discounts for new construction homes designed with south-facing roofs that maximize the potential for solar capture.
Legislators should also monitor and encourage continued and fair utility participation in net-metering or excess-energy buyback. By “fair,” the utility companies should be able to profit from the sale of your energy. Only then will they invest to bank and distribute it.
The legislators would face the wrath of Georgia Power Company, which discourages roof-top solar and re-selling the extra energy back to the grid. That’s a powerful lobby and the legislators would face heavy pressure from this utility.
Lastly, a solution to high heating bills resulting from U.S. natural gas being sold at higher prices to Europe, is again solar. A relatively small solar panel capturing and circulating hot water instead of electrons can be very effective for heating the main part of a home during winter.
“Thermal” solar uses a collector similar in appearance to photovoltaic (PV), but circulates water warmed by the sun. Even in northern New England, this circulating water can typically be in excess of 150 F on the coldest of sunny days. The water can be naturally (passive) or forced circulated and released into the home in a variety of ways including under-floor tubes or a radiator. The use of an insulated storage tank will allow banking the energy captured during peak sunshine until needed overnight.
Again, our state legislator’s attention and commitment to our community and technical college system to produce technicians interested and capable of servicing the growing green and solar energy industry is vital.
These are issues that our state elected officials can understand and get behind. We must demand that they do so.
- Have a comment? Send to: elliott@brack.net
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