Bacon's Rebellion

Construction/Real Estate Sector Dominates Campaign Contributions

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by

James A. Bacon
in

Not exactly big news, but it confirms what we already know: The real estate and construction industry is by far the largest donor to Virginia political campaigns this year. Sayeth an Associated Press article today:

The group, dominated by developers, general contractors and real estate agents in particular, amassed contributions exceeding $6.2 million to candidates for governor, lieutenant governor and attorney general, according to an Associated Press analysis of reports compiled into a database by the Virginia Public Access Project.

It is much larger than the No. 2 source of cash, the $3.9 million transferred among political parties, political action committees and candidates, and is more than double the $3 million law firms contributed.

What are the implications? I’m glad you asked:

Large gifts by the people who plan, finance, build and sell homes, office parks, shopping plazas and entertainment complexes … represents an enormous investment in politicians who will have an enormous influence on state tax, transportation and urban policies as the teeming suburbs of northern Virginia, Hampton Roads and Richmond struggle to keep services current with developments that seem to leapfrog one another.

Thanks AP, I couldn’t have said it better.

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  1. Paul Avatar
    Paul

    Of course, as you said before, development isn’t the enemy. It’s the type of development that we’ve been seeing.

    Have you “balanced community” guys considered forgetting about influencing politicians and taking your case to the developers who really make these decisions?

  2. Paul Avatar
    Paul

    I’d add that this is how the Historic Preservation movement took off and became mainstream in the 90s. They forged partnerships with developers and architects.

  3. E M Risse Avatar
    E M Risse

    Paul:

    Partnerships help on “projects” like the ones Historic Preservation advocates support. It helps on “conservation” projects but they cover only a few percent of the Countryside.

    Partnerships are far less useful in creating functional human settlement patterns because of the scope and magnitude of the forces at work.

    Some of our best friends are developers. In fact a lot of folks think EMR is one because of current and past work. (See note on Burke Centre.)

    The political contributions are an attempt to push policy in a favorable direction for developer’s short-term internst.

    The problem is this contributes to a long term downward sprial with respect to what is good for society in general.

    EMR

  4. Jim Bacon Avatar
    Jim Bacon

    Paul, We “balanced community” guys will take our message to anyone who will listen, including developers. Many developers find the idea appealing because balanced communities are easier to sell because they are inherently more liveable.

    The problem is that only a handful of developers can assemble enough land to build a “balanced community” all by themselves. In most cases, the building of any community requires the coordination of many, many developers and home builders. Alas, county zoning codes, comprehensive plans and subdivision ordinances, along with state transportation funding priorities, are sending the wrong signals to developers.

    Worse, local governments don’t necessarily want “balanced communities.” They are incentivized to prefer high concentrations of business development because businesses may far more in taxes than they require in services. Thus, you get places like Crystal City and Tysons, which throw all of Northern Virginia out of whack. What’s good for Arlington and Fairfax County is disastrous for the region as a whole. The poor bastards who want to preserve a rural way of life in Loudoun and Fauquier counties are paying the price for Fairfax’s “success.”

  5. E M Risse Avatar
    E M Risse

    Jim:

    All good points!

    Paul:

    I forgot the last paragraph that I was going to say in response to your original question. The points I raised in the earlier post in this thread has led some of us to beleive the only solution is to go directly to the citizens and to rally large numbers of them.

    Joe Freeman has just completed a literate draft of the PROPERTY DYNAMICS strategy document and you will be hearing more of that activity in the near future.

    EMR

  6. Ray Hyde Avatar
    Ray Hyde

    Farms pay far more in taxes than they reciee in services, too. It seems to me that the problem is that government is incentivized, as Jim says, towards those activities that are taxed unfairly.

    At the same time residential development is the victim of both the NIMBY’s, the conservationists, and those that claim (wrongly, in my opinion) that residential development is a money loser.

    Like farms, businesses owners carry a relatively small percentage of the vote, so these disparities are likely to persist, with the result that we will have less of what people seem to want (but not pay for) and not more.

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