Archive

Archive for the ‘Smart Growth America’ Category

Building Better Budgets

May 22, 2013 Comments off

Building Better Budgets

Source: Smart Growth America

Local governments across the country have compared development strategies to understand their impact on municipal finances. These studies generally compare two or more different development scenarios, and help local leaders make informed decisions about new development based on the costs or revenues associated with them.

Many municipalities have found that a smart growth approach would improve their financial bottom line. Whether by saving money on upfront infrastructure; reducing the cost of ongoing services like fire, police and ambulance; or by generating greater tax revenues in years to come, community after community has found that smart growth development would benefit their overall financial health. Many of these findings have been made publicly available.

No national survey has examined these savings as a whole until now. This report is the first to aggregate those comparisons and determine a national average of how much other communities can expect to save by using smart growth strategies.

Categories: business and economics, government and politics, Smart Growth America

Federal Involvement in Real Estate

January 8, 2013 Comments off

Federal Involvement in Real Estate
Source: Smart Growth America

Each year, the federal government spends approximately $450 billion on real estate through a combination of direct expenditures and tax and loan commitments. Smart Growth America surveyed 50 federal real estate programs to better understand where this money goes and how it influences development in the United States. The spending examined in the report’s analysis includes tax expenditures, loan guarantees, and low-interest loans and grants. It does not include the Government Sponsored Enterprises, nor does it include non-real estate spending that greatly influences development, including investments in transportation, other infrastructure and federally owned real estate.

This spending has an enormous impact on the U.S. real estate market. Though usually viewed as a “free” market, the U.S. real estate sector is heavily influenced by direct and indirect government intervention. Much has been written about how zoning, infrastructure provisions, subdivision regulations, local approval processes and other factors make the real estate market a product of more than simple supply and demand. And recently, more has been written about the outsized role of the GSEs and the need for their reform. Taken as a whole, these expenditures and investments impact where real estate is developed and what kind of product is built.

Even a cursory analysis reveals this impact is uneven. For example, small multifamily buildings are less likely to receive financing, despite the fact that most renters in the United States live in these smaller buildings. Viewed as whole, federal funds are not targeted to those most in need, are not targeted to strengthen existing communities and are not targeted to places where people have economic opportunities.

Federal real estate spending should be reviewed and refocused. Smart Growth America’s survey revealed several instances where federal real estate expenditures and commitments could better meet our national needs and provide better benefits to homeowners, renters and communities. These shortcomings mean U.S. taxpayers are failing to get the most out of these large federal investments.

Categories: government and politics, housing and real estate, infrastructure, Smart Growth America, social and cultural issues, taxation

New report reveals smart transportation spending creates jobs, grows the economy

February 9, 2011 Comments off

New report reveals smart transportation spending creates jobs, grows the economy

Source:  Smart Growth America

In his State of the Union address, President Obama called on Americans to “out-innovate, out-educate, and out-build the rest of the world” to win the future. To rebuild America, he said, we will aim to put “more Americans to work repairing crumbling roads and bridges.”

A new report from Smart Growth America analyzes states’ investments in infrastructure to determine whether they made the best use of their spending based on job creation numbers. Recent Lessons from the Stimulus: Transportation Funding and Job Creation evaluates how successful states have been in creating jobs with their flexible $26.6 billion of transportation funds from the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act (ARRA). Those results should guide governors and other leaders in revitalizing America’s transportation system, maximizing job creation from transportation dollars and rebuilding the economy.

According to data sent by the states to Congress, the states that created the most jobs were the ones that invested in public transportation projects and projects that maintained and repaired existing roads and bridges. The states that spent their funds predominantly building new roads and bridges created fewer jobs.

+ Full Report (PDF)

Categories: government and politics, infrastructure, labor, Smart Growth America, transportation and travel
Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 513 other followers