How Dumb Can a Politician Get?
24th January 2023
John Hinderaker at Power Line.
The City of Minneapolis was in decline before covid, and before George Floyd. Abysmal governance and high costs had closed or driven away many businesses. Then came the covid shutdowns, riots and skyrocketing violence, and the city has turned into a disaster area. Who would want to try to run a business in Minneapolis? Not many people, it turns out. So the city’s streets are lined with closed or abandoned storefronts.
This gave Minneapolis’s City Council a great idea: a tax on vacancy! That will force whoever owns the buildings to put businesses in them whether they like it or not, and regardless of whether they make money. Brilliant.
January 24th, 2023 at 07:18
Under the circumstances, it might be easier for the property owners to stop paying the mortgages and let the city take over the properties.