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One of the memes the 1% crowd has been pushing, both locally and nationally, has been The Cost To The Taxpayer of the protests — usually in the form of utterly unnecessary (and local-economy-hurting) barricades, police presence, and surveillance of groups of largely self-disciplined and peaceful protesters — costs that one almost never sees tallied in discussions of, say, policing of sporting events such as the Minnesota Lynx’ win of the WNBA championship.
The dirty little secret here is that the price of foreclosures and bank bailouts — where your tax dollars are given to the banks so they can use that money to more efficiently kick you out of your own home — is what’s really costing the taxpayer. See, for example, Minnesotans for Fair Economy’s report on Hennepin County in Minnesota, which encompasses the city of Minneapolis and several other municipalities:
- Experts estimate that a typical foreclosure can cost a local government more than $19,000 [i]. With 9,393 foreclosures[ii] in Hennepin County, the cost of current foreclosures to taxpayers in Hennepin County is $180.6 million.[iii]
The real estate market collapse widely attributed to the big banks reckless behavior has cost the county much more in lost property taxes.
- Homes in Hennepin County are worth about $75,200 less than they were at the beginning of the housing crisis [iv], for lost an estimated total of $22.7 billion in lost value[v], which could drain $268 million in annual tax revenue from the county and its municipalities.[vi]
“Our First Amendment rights to protest are priceless; but the foreclosure crisis brought on by predatory lending and Wall Street recklessness has drained homeowners of billions in home value and thus cost Hennepin County millions,” said Donna Cassutt,Minnesotans for a Fair Economy spokesperson said.
“Sheriff Stanek and Chief Dolan shouldn’t blame the messenger when people stand up to demand reform of reckless bank behavior that has cost our communities a fortune and devastated whole neighborhoods,” added Javier Morillo, President of SEIU Local 26 and a steering committee member of Minnesotans for a Fair Economy.
Steve Fletcher, the Executive Director of Neighborhoods Organizing for Change said, “NOC just released a study showing that the foreclosure crisis has cost the Minneapolis Public Schools $150 million. The banks and government have done far too little to help underwater and struggling homeowners or hold banks accountable. That’s the problem.”
“All across this county we have roads and bridges and schools that need repair and re-building. We should be investing in putting people to work so they can stay in their houses instead of letting sheriff’s deputies be used to put families out of their homes,” said Carol Nieters Executive Director of SEIU Local 284.
Watch the video above for some strong testimony from victims of foreclosure. Bet it sounds a lot like what you’re seeing in your home towns.
36 Comments
Well, you need to send one of those “good questions” about the cost of foreclosures to WCCO so they can report on the cost of foreclosures instead of the costs of the protests. Your message needs better marketing. It’s not getting through.
Also, could you folks PLEASE come up with a candidate to primary Senator Amy.
I don’t think she’s on YOUR side:
http://www.klobuchar.senate.gov/newsreleases_detail.cfm?id=334513&
“Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar has come together with a bipartisan group of 18 senators to launch the first ever U.S. Senate Law Enforcement Caucus to educate and inform their colleagues and staff about the programs and initiatives that are keeping American communities safe, while advocating for the policies and tools law enforcement agencies need to carry out their missions”
Good old Senator Law and Order, bipartisanly of course.
Oh really.
Like lobbying, ROR on demonizing OWS must be over 1000%.
Funny, I don’t remember the toady media lamenting the cost of policing any teabagger rallies/marches/spitting events.
PW, very nicely said.
Egggzacktly.
Great post, PW.
So far, anyway.
x2
“The dirty little secret here is that the price of foreclosures and bank bailouts — where your tax dollars are given to the banks so they can use that money to more efficiently kick you out of your own home — is what’s really costing the taxpayer.”
Yup. That, and the wrecking of the tax base at the national, state and local levels. There’s also the gazillion dollars worth of ancillary damage (like neighborhood blight, for example) caused by vacated properties staying empty for months / years on end. This crap is so utterly transparent on its face that it’s almostimpossible for me to comprehend how anyone could see it in any other way…(Fox News [sic], AM talk radio (etc) importunate, specious, lying bullshit to the contrary notwithstanding.
Even when they were brandishing their
dicksfirearms…! ;-)Hey, if you can think of it, why not do it yourself? As the saying goes: “If it is to be, then it is up to me.”
I’ll post ‘CCO’s contact info so other Minnesotans reading this can do the same thing:
Mahalo, PW…! Awesome post…!
The numbers certainly don’t lie…! 8-(
Banks have been sitting on some properties for so long the houses are falling apart — and rather than spend any money to fix them (or even donate them to some poor people who are homeless), they’re taking them off the market by destroying them.
YHM.
This includes historic properties.
You repeated a comment of mine this morning about the object being just plain cruelty. I was touched that you’d remembered it.
Destroying houses in the face of homelessness is just such another heart numbing action I can’t fathom. Goes to depths of depravity too deep for me.
I wonder if the obama bots have notciced the obama “justice dept” is trying to muscle through fraud settlements that amount to more redistribution of middle class assets to the wealthy?
I doubt it, I have read some who actually brag about being obama bots the way I brag about being a firebagger
econobuzz,
Do NOT mention historic properties on any thread where I am present. My house is historic, history only gets destroyed, not created, next to wrecking already alive human lives, the next thing that creates such depression in me is wrecking historic properties.
What also pisses me off is that they do raze ‘em instead of dismantling and recycling the wood, pipes, windows, wiring, etc…! 8-(
No, they don’t.
my friend owed a home on the water in hollywood florida, a home at one time worth 2 mil
he had multiple mortgages (he was a morgage banker) and owed more then the house was worth even before the market crashed
then of course the market crashed
so he let them foreclose, they sort of refused cause they could not sell it and they could not maintain it so they left him alone in the hopes that the market would rebound and he would maintain the property
so here it is, years later, his daughter is still living there, mortgage free, no foreclosure
It does. But all they care about is trying to reinflate the housing-price bubble, for their own gain.
Sometimes being massively in debt works out.
Not to mention the fact that many of these properties are being carried at some hyper-inflated market value on their balance sheets. (The FASB used to be a reasonably independent authoritative body for the accounting profession. Now, however, they’re just another cog in the Perpetuation / Facilitation of Oligarchy machinery.)
I like to think that having been trained as an accountant (which I trust won’t be held against me) has afforded me a sufficient body of knowledge to assert that bad assets should be written off. In bookkeeping terms, the real estate loans and MBS are debits that need to be flowed (as we say in the vernacular) from the balance sheets to the income statements. If that were done, however, the insolvency of these zombie institutions would be obvious in about 10 minutes. Solution? Receivership, and then a systematic dismantling of these “too big to fails.”
“Control Fraud” and a “criminogenic environment,” as Professor Black has asserted.
Don’t get me started on these gangsters….Grrrrr…..
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/visualizing-true-cost-first-bank-bailout-35-trillion-and-rising-over-1-trillion-every-year
More chartporn
http://www.businessinsider.com/what-wall-street-protesters-are-so-angry-about-2011-10?op=1
Understand. Will refrain.
I am not a member of any team, and would not want to be a member of a club who would have me as a member.
groucho marxism?
*heh* A little Mark Twain there, eh…? ;-)
I thought it was Twain…! ;-)
Be sure never to watch any videos of what the army guys did to the archeological sites in Iraq.
The USA where the banks rob YOU!
Perhaps a strong letter to the EITF is due? :-)
In any case I am unaware of asset valuation rules today that are all that different from what they were in the 60′s, 70′s, 80′, 90′s, and 2000 to 2004. Held for investment is limited by regulation but can be carried at cost – as it always has – and “market adjusted” depends on the accountants view of the market – for anything. The shorts in the hedge funds tried to gain a bit of money by selling and buying between themselves at extremely low prices so as to force the appearance of bankruptcy on various institutions – claiming their fixed low price was “market” so the accountants must use that price in valuation. The idea was accepted by FASB and then rejected when the hedge fund problem was exposed.
I don’t know what is reasonable asset valuation in every industry – that is the job of your profession and the experts you must hire to get that number. I do suggest that FASB has not “sold out” – although I agree the leadership appears tied too closely to the Sec of the Treas, and at times appears to make decisions that he might favor. But that is not “in bed with” – it is just American capitalism – - – on second thought they may be the same.
I do note that “underwater” homes are on average not that much underwater these days, and mortgage ins covers the first 20% in many cases, so there may be fewer “zombie” institutions that you suspect. The situation sucks and a major refi program is need as well as a principal write down bias in foreclosure situations (the current bias is against any modification and for a fast foreclosure). But I have given up on Obama doing a damn thing for anyone not rich and/or corporate.
“muscle through fraud settlements that amount to more redistribution of middle class assets to the wealthy?”
OK – how ?
If no settlement and a put back of mortgages as pushed by the hedge funds, the wealthy who own the hedge funds take cash from every pension fund and person with assets in bank stock. Seems the direction of asset flow is to the wealthy if no settlement.
The only way to get an asset flow to the middle class is via a settlement that forces such a flow.
Very good, Perris!