COUNTY COUNCILS HOUSING 'BLIGHT' FUNDING: $60M FOR TAX-EXEMPT LOANS!

The Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors, in their infinite wisdom and boundless generosity with *your* money, convened this week to bless yet another sweetheart deal for 'affordable housing.' This time, it's a cool $60 million in tax-exempt bonds for some outfit called Step Up Housing to spruce up the 'Knollwood Meadows Apartments' in Santa Maria. Apparently, securing financing for apartments is now too arduous a task for mere mortals, so the county, via the California Municipal Finance Authority, must step in to make banking easier for those blessed enough to qualify as a 501(c)(3).

Never mind that a 501(c)(3) designation should mean they’re already exempt from certain federal income taxes; now they need taxpayer-backed, tax-exempt bonds to really grease the skids. It’s a classic move: government creates a problem (overregulation, anyone?), then creates an elaborate, expensive mechanism to 'solve' it, all while funneling public funds to their favored 'non-profits.' One has to wonder how much "rehabilitation, improvement, and equipping" a $60 million injection buys and if any of it ever trickles down to actual affordability for the locals.

The Supervisors, ever keen to avoid real accountability, also cheerily determined that this colossal financial maneuver is definitely *not* a project under the California Environmental Quality Act. Because, of course, giving a private entity $60 million in public-backed funds is merely "government funding mechanisms and/or fiscal activities" and thus exempt from environmental scrutiny. The irony is as thick as the concrete that will surely be poured. It's almost as if common sense and fiscal prudence are the true endangered species in Santa Barbara County. While other outlets might focus on the noble 'intent' of such programs, The Whipping Post knows a subsidy when we see one.

This isn't about housing the poor; it's about enriching connected developers and expanding the public sector's reach, all under the guise of compassion. Perhaps instead of complex 501(c)(3) bond schemes, Supervisors could focus on cutting red tape for *all* builders, not just the politically preferred. But then, where would the opportunities for grand gestures and public pronouncements of caring be?