Affordable housing under 40B: No oversight, no accountability, big profits for private business:
Inspector General Gregory W. Sullivan’s staff has spent the past year examining records from state offices and town halls and financial statements from developers that have built under the state’s Chapter 40B law. The law exempts developers from local zoning if they set aside at least 20 percent of the housing units for low- or moderate-income residents.
The developers are required to limit their profits from the projects to 20 percent. But Sullivan said developers are finding ways to circumvent that cap, including engaging in insider land deals, hiring contractors that are connected to them, inflating expenses, or using other “accounting fictions.”
“For certain developers, 40B has been a pig fest,” Sullivan said in an interview Friday. “The problem extends throughout Massachusetts, everywhere that there are 40B developments.”
All things being equal, I’m pro-40B … but who gets the blame for this? Who’s supposed to be in charge? Gosh, it’s just so vague, and who can know, right? Sound familiar?
And then there’s Massport:
Nearly two dozen managers at the Massachusetts Port Authority have unrestricted personal use of company cars, and some have never reimbursed the agency for using the vehicles outside of work.
…Massport is an independent agency funded by tolls and fees and not affected by state regulations that prohibit state vehicles from being used for any purpose other than official business. The federal government also prohibits employees from using government-issued vehicles for personal use.
Isn’t that fascinating — another “independent agency”, another rogue state within the state. And who’s supposed to be running this thing again? Do we have an organizational chart — or web, or fractal graph — for Massport?
If you don’t know whom to blame, you don’t get accountability. If no one fears for his job if he gets embarassed, then you can expect this kind of thing.
So here’s the strategy: Right now, and going forward: Blame the governor first. Yes, even if Patrick wins. The buck’s got to stop somewhere — how about at the top? Hold the governor accountable — no excuses, no blame-transferral, no “gosh golly, I really tried but couldn’t get the legislature to play nice.” Just blame the governor, let him or her feel the heat and hopefully get something done.
Mitt, over to you. Mitt? Hello?
Did you notice that in one of Deval’s ads he decries the “big dig culture”. He should have finished your sentence to add “on Beacon Hill”.
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Now that may be an obvious phrase, but I’ll credit you with writing it last spring (earlier?).
The Globe article also quotes …
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“Representative William G. Greene Jr., a Democrat from Billerica, said that the state Department of Housing and Community Development, the agency that administers the program, has also refused to help communities scrutinize developers’ cost and profits.
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“They’ve completely ignored us,” Greene said.”
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So it is an executive agency that is covering up the corruption of what can be an important program for affordable housing. This is one of the most economic issues facing the state and supports Deval’s point that the Romney Healey talk a good game about smart growth but do not do enough.
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By the way…I have been told that the Executive Office of Environmental Affairs is considering loosening regulations governing petroleum spill clean-up. This is sitting in someone’s drawer until after the election as a draft is floating around and has not been released for public comment. Good news for gasoline companies…bad news for people drinking water.