Philipsburg Town Council work session April 3rd 2024 councilman Clark provides his opinion on the currently proposed rank Control Ordinance and explains why he is opposed to it with that being said we'll open it up to councilman Clark uh thank you council president so tonight is clearly a very important meeting I've never seen a turnout for a work session like this in a long long while so it's unfortunate matters like this that bring the public out but n nonetheless I'm glad to see public participation in the Democratic process nonetheless I've already stated and actually let me turn this on I've already stated my stance on rent control I don't believe it is what fburg needs at this point I think it'll do actually more harm for renters and homeowners alike if implemented right now and for full transparency I'm the only renter up here so I do not make these decisions light-heartedly it's something I spent a lot of time thinking about but I do base all of this on my education experience that I have accumulated over the years not too many people have the opportunity to go and do their masters I was fortunate enough to graduate with my masters in business communication where I've taken classes in both macro and microeconomics financials and other business Associated uh courses where we discussed Market uh anomalies like this such as rent control I don't see it as the benefit for the residents of phsb or even the growth of our investment and business centers here in town that is necessary and tonight we literally heard from investors that would they would sell if need be we would lose Investments all those tenants would be displaced where would they go these are the questions we need to ask now we received the ordinance right here yesterday around what did I write um 300 p.m. so I didn't have a lot of time to review but I did get a chance to notice a lot Jo councilman speak please so I did get a chance to review as much as I could in its entirety so rather than focusing on the ill um points of rank control which I've spent since 2019 discussing I would like to bring up some points regarding the ordinance itself that has caught my eye and has concerned me and tonight we have heard something very interesting much of this language is unamerican first off reading through this you see a good Trend the town of felsburg here the town of felsburg this the town of Philipsburg this is clearly addressing the town of Philipsburg specifically until you get to section 4636 powers and duty of the rent stabilization board section B where it specifically says sufficient copies of the current rules and regulations shall be file be on file with the city clerk and coordinator for the Perth Amboy rent control board this was not written for Philipsburg this is the Perth Amboy rent Control Ordinance all they did was take Perth Amboy out and put the word Philipsburg in and they forgot to do it for one line so we know that this is not for Philipsburg it's for Perth Amboy which then raises another question can you compare filbur to Perth Amoy n that alone voids this entire thing out and just to share some statistics regarding perthamboy on why I believe it's not a case that can be compared to felsburg the population of peroy alone is 55,000 plus compared to our 15,000 plus the medium household income of peroy is around $52,000 whereas filbur is around 64,000 based off of 2022 census dat per andoy renter OCC occupation is 67% that's nowhere near Philipsburg which is around what 47 is% it's around the 50 Mark it's about almost half half regarding homeowners and renters you can't compare the two so why are we using an ordinance that was meant for Perth Amboy to place it upon the business owners renters and home owners of felsburg so that right there is just a a red major red flag for my uh uh concern right there problem number two number two when you start talking about the rent control board underneath the section let's see give me one second one second here section 463-5297 [Music] they're being paid who's paying for this let me tell you you the taxpayer also there has to be a lawyer to oversee this because this will also this board will also have the power to do subpoenas and other legal actions who is paying for all that you've seen our 11% tax hike because we're seeing spending going up this is just more spending and expansion of government we can't afford this we need to get the spending under control and this is just creating more government bureaucracy more jobs so I'm sorry that I'm also against because where's that money coming from also the hardship Clause now under this ordinance if passed landlords can't charge above 3% annual right so on top of an 11% tax heke we're also capping Investments at 3% annual now there's a hardship forw is that if they need to raise taxes they can go before this board and be considered in order to First be considered expenditures have to exceed 60% of their Total Rental income over 60% for them to even be considered to raise their ta uh rent in order to pay expenditures right I don't know about you but what business what investment runs at a 60% expenditure lost loss for you to have to then be considered to in uh increase your revenue and remember key word here is income rental income not profit so you still have to pay taxes on your income all right this is bad business sense and you will push out more tenants more renters if you put it in because you are forcing these in investors to sell their properties and you even heard it yourself they're either going to stay abandoned or some slum Lord is going to come in and not make any improvements so I'm sorry but we have to look at this as long term because this is going to affect filbur for the next 20 30 40 years down the road affordability is at the Forefront of my mind and unfortunately we live in New Jersey one of the most expensive states in the country highest property taxes we are experiencing um a shortage of housing but it's not just specific to to uh felsburg it's a nationwide problem and that's what's causing rents to go up a shortage of housing an increase in demand increase in tax uh rents rent control only addresses the symptom but not the overall root problem which then causes even more problems we need to increase the uh supply of housing here nationally Statewide and locally to relieve the problem once and for all rent control sounds good on the surface but it will do irreparable damage longterm dislocate a bunch of tenants uh lower the quality of life for these folks because landlords won't be able to make the repairs that they need to and create all this bureaucracy and spending because at the end of the day someone has to pay for all this it's not free it's physically it's physically irresponsible and I'm sorry to be so passionate about this but we're we're staring down the barrel of 11% tax increase a 3% investment cap rise spending we're looking out for y'all yes y'all and I will not apologize let the councilman talk thank you council president everybody up here will get an opportunity and no councilman will tear into another one while I'm making that statement everyone understand that thank you council president I respect that but again it's a sensitive issue but if we truly want to fix the issue we cannot make wrong decisions we need to go at this full force we need to be smart about this and we need to fully UTI utilize State resources for renters assistance there are programs out there one of which is the yanker program I've never heard anyone truly talk about it I'm constantly on social media connecting with renters letting them know that it's available yes Joe no exception sorry so let talk thank you so that's all I'm going to say about that so I'm not voting for this it's going to do too much damage but I do believe that there are manners sorry there are ways we can alleviate the problem the symptoms of the major problem while also addressing the major economic problem that does not punish homeowners land um sorry homeowners businesses or even renters in the long term so thank you