Drafter
Clerk 12/15/2008
Title
A MOTION relating to a housing stimulus plan for King County to preserve and enhance the supply of housing in King County.
Body
WHEREAS, the economic downturn in King County is triggering substantial revenue shortfalls for county and city governments, resulting in significant job losses and in some cases diminishing their ability to provide critical facilities and services to county citizens, and
WHEREAS, King County's job loss is due to a nationwide economic downturn/recession that has now revealed its full impact in Washington state, thus calling for extraordinary effort in the task of attracting new business to King County, and
WHEREAS, according to 2008 market research by the National Association of Home Builders, an average of 3.05 jobs and $89,216 in taxes are produced from building an average new single family home and the development of a typical one-hundred-unit multifamily apartment complex generates one hundred sixteen jobs, $8,670,900 in income from all affected industries and $3,349,400 in tax revenue, and
WHEREAS, a recent Oregon study found that for every job created on site by creating or renovating affordable housing an additional 1.5 jobs are created off site. For every dollar invested in affordable housing, an additional ten to fifteen dollars of economic benefit was generated for the surrounding community, and
WHEREAS, the federal government has announced its intentions to develop a major economic stimulus package focused on funding public-works infrastructure projects to increase the demand for labor, and
WHEREAS, the state of Washington and other jurisdictions are currently preparing or adopting legislative plans to stimulate certain economic sectors, in part by increasing the efficiency of permit processes and expediting public works projects that are already planned and funded, and
WHEREAS, the King County council and King County executive desire to implement a housing stimulus plan in p...

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