The Laramie City Council will consider registration fees for landlords and complaint filing fees for rental tenants. The money raised will fund the enforcement of Laramie’s new Rental Housing Code.
Jeff - whose biased site doesn't qualify as "reporting" but rather as just another opinionated blog - apparently thinks that all rental property owners are rich. If this resolution is passed, and the courts do not promptly overturn the ordinance, my family - who are "small potatoes" and own only 20 units between us - would have to pay $400 in illegal taxes each year. That's enough to buy a new range. Or a new refrigerator. Or carpet for a room. Or a new window. We'd have to either forego maintenance and improvements or raise rents. We estimate that rents in Laramie will go up 10-15% during this coming rental season if the illegal ordinance is not voided as a result of the multiple lawsuits that are, justifiably, being mounted now to challenge it. So much for the "affordable housing" that the Council members who rammed this ordinance though, seeking revenge for past bad experiences that were due to their own ignorance of their rights and responsibilities, falsely claimed to be promoting!
What's more, the tax is double what city staff claimed when the ordinance was being discussed. When the bureaucrats spoke to Council (to whom, alas, they often lie), they presented inconsistent numbers, but verbally quoted a figure of $20 per unit every TWO years. Now they've drafted a resolution increasing that to $20 per year! Given the number of rentals in Laramie (more than half the housing in town), the illegal tax (it's illegal because Wyoming cities aren't allowed to impose taxes by ordinance) would put about a quarter of a MILLION dollars into the city's coffers every year, funding big raises for existing bureaucrats (the City Manger is already the third highest paid public employee in Laramie, behind the football coach and UW president) and bloating the city bureaucracy. City Council should vote down this illegal tax - which violates their oath to uphold the Wyoming Constitution - now.
Jeff - whose biased site doesn't qualify as "reporting" but rather as just another opinionated blog - apparently thinks that all rental property owners are rich. If this resolution is passed, and the courts do not promptly overturn the ordinance, my family - who are "small potatoes" and own only 20 units between us - would have to pay $400 in illegal taxes each year. That's enough to buy a new range. Or a new refrigerator. Or carpet for a room. Or a new window. We'd have to either forego maintenance and improvements or raise rents. We estimate that rents in Laramie will go up 10-15% during this coming rental season if the illegal ordinance is not voided as a result of the multiple lawsuits that are, justifiably, being mounted now to challenge it. So much for the "affordable housing" that the Council members who rammed this ordinance though, seeking revenge for past bad experiences that were due to their own ignorance of their rights and responsibilities, falsely claimed to be promoting!
What's more, the tax is double what city staff claimed when the ordinance was being discussed. When the bureaucrats spoke to Council (to whom, alas, they often lie), they presented inconsistent numbers, but verbally quoted a figure of $20 per unit every TWO years. Now they've drafted a resolution increasing that to $20 per year! Given the number of rentals in Laramie (more than half the housing in town), the illegal tax (it's illegal because Wyoming cities aren't allowed to impose taxes by ordinance) would put about a quarter of a MILLION dollars into the city's coffers every year, funding big raises for existing bureaucrats (the City Manger is already the third highest paid public employee in Laramie, behind the football coach and UW president) and bloating the city bureaucracy. City Council should vote down this illegal tax - which violates their oath to uphold the Wyoming Constitution - now.