Do Seattle election results show a war between renters and homeowners?

When taxes increase for homeowners, there is a trickle down to renters, even if it’s not direct. It’s a concept that KIRO Radio’s John Curley believes most renters are either naïve to or aren’t thoroughly considering.

Early election results show Seattleites are willing to pay more taxes to fund new infrastructure and projects. Curley wondered if the press needs to do a better job of telling voters how much tax increases will impact rent, and not just how much the average increase will be for homeowners.

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“I think that would be fine; I don’t think that would change the vote that much,” said co-host Tom Tangney. “I don’t think the renters are outvoting homeowners, John. I don’t think the homeowners are on one side and the renters are on the other.”

“I think they are, in Seattle, absolutely,” Curley countered.

Curley believes that many renters don’t realize that extra taxes for landlords come back around. He explained that when a landlord’s taxes go up, so does rent. However, that rent can only be raised so high before the landlord decides it’s not worth owning the building anymore.

“So he sells the building,” Curley said. “When he sells the building, the building gets knocked down, a new building goes up and when a new building goes up, the rent goes up as well. So eventually, the tenants are like, ‘Hey, I didn’t realize what I did when I voted yes for $1 million additional spending because now my landlord has sold my old building and now a new guy has come in, fixed it up and raised the rent and kicked me out.’ You can’t kick the hornet’s nest.”

Tangney believes that most renters know that.

“I think you underestimate how liberal homeowners are,” he said. “I’m a homeowner and I’m liberal and I voted to raise our property taxes.”

Still, Tangney said it would be interesting to survey how renters voted versus homeowners.

“I live in a relatively liberal district, and it’s not a rich district, but it’s liberal in Seattle, and we are voting to raise our own property taxes,” he said. “Now, we’d like to have other forms of taxes, like parking taxes, maybe business taxes … also to alleviate the load, but still, it makes some sense. So I don’t think it’s a war between homeowners and renters.”