N.J. senator: An alternative plan to Court’s ruling on affordable housing | Opinion
Posted on January 27, 2017 at 10:44 AM
By Christopher Bateman
Providing enough affordable housing for people in need is one of the most important issues we face in this state. The constant string of misguided court decisions has done nothing but create confusion for our towns.
Last week, the New Jersey Supreme Court issued a ruling that could be devastating to taxpayers.
The court essentially overturned a July 2016 Appellate Court decision and ruled that the calculation of present need must be expanded to include obligations created during the “gap period” of 1999-2015. The court determined that a new, undefined “analytic component” should be used to determine if the needs created during the gap period still exist today.
Since its first intrusive decision more than 40 years ago, the court has been infamous for creating this kind of confusion. As a result, municipalities have spent far too much time and money in court battling over how to determine and satisfy their court-imposed “fair share.”
https://www.nj.com/opinion/index.ssf/2017/01/nj_senator_an_alternative_plan_to_courts_ruling_on.html
What a mess. So much bullshit. Instead of finding simple ways to resolve problems our government and courts just look for ways to create more confusion to existing residents and homeowners. I do not trust anyone.
To hell with this whole idea of a constitutional entitlement to affordable housing. If we need to, we should go ahead and amend the constitution to eliminate the entitlement and re-commit the issue back to the legislature to decide whether to act on the supposed need or not.