The Way I See It!

Code Compliance

Posted by Randy Hollenbeck on Sept. 30, 2009

Cudahy, Development, Education, Economy, Taxes

There is a movement to bring back Code Compliance to Cudahy.  The thinking process is that one of the main problems with home values and upkeep is because Cudahy doesn’t have Code Compliance anymore.

Code Compliance is a process that works to ensure that property owners bring their structures and property conditions up to adopted Building, Housing, Nuisance and Zoning Code Standards

The thing is that I checked with Franklin, Oak Creek, South Milwaukee, and St. Francis and none of them are “Code Compliance” cities!  I don’t think Cudahy’s problems are a result of dropping “Code Compliance”.

Cudahy’s ratio of renters to homeowners is the problem!  In fact, the ratio is flipped.

What happen to the money and or financial support from the City that was to be offered to help convert Multifamily homes into single-family dwellings?

That will help Cudahy!

How about when the economy gets back up and running (it will when Obama stops meddling) that Cudahy offers zero percent or very low home improvement loans!  It says up to $20,000.  That would let many homeowners replace roofs, replace decks, replace driveways, update kitchens, or bathrooms.

How about Cudahy help out first time homeowners (yes, I know WHEDA is out there) with home loans to fix up the home they buy.  Make sure there is a clause to stay 5 years.  CUDAHY DOES NOT NEED HOUSE FLIPPERS!

Crime!  No matter how the City wants to spin it we have a high crime city.  We have a drug problem in Cudahy.  If you don’t think so, come to the monthly Neighborhood Watch meetings.  Open your eyes and ears and you will come to that conclusion and have a good understanding.  We have an excellent police force, but we need the businesses’ and resident’s involvement.  Both local business owners and those that just run a Cudahy business.  Both homeowners and renters!  Everyone needs to work to lower crime!  

Jobs and more businesses in Cudahy!  Like it or not, but Cudahy has the wrong ratio of homeowner to business taxes!  That is something that Lara Fritts is aware but Mayor McCue just must not see!  Cudahy needs a pro-business Mayor, support staff and other elected officials.  We will not get that with the current regime!  I like Lara Fritts, even though I think she is over paid, but it remains to be seen what she can do. 

I know the marketing survey showed we need big box retailers, more fast food and sit down, more civic things to do.  I know that is not what Mayor McCue or Lara Fritts wanted to hear. 

See again, Cudahy would have, and still does want, a Wal-Mart! 

Like it or not as I have said in the past, about 82% to 88% of Cudahy residents wanted the Wal-Mart, it was and is just a small percentage of Cudahy residents (large amount of Wal-Mart haters not even from Cudahy came and made noise) and the Mayor and a few alderman who would not listen to what their own constituents wanted. 

Only one alderman took the time to survey his district’s residents and once he got the data, buried it!  (my guess was pressured into it).  When people don’t have jobs, any jobs, the community and the individuals suffer.  Any job is better than no job!  Those that don’t believe that are those that are government employees at either the federal, state or local level.

Cudahy needs to improve the school system.  Yes, this is a touchy subject, but many parents bypass Cudahy because overall Cudahy schools just don’t rank up there.

Number one on the list is to reduce taxes and fees!  YES, taxes are just way too high for the level of services we get.  It can be done.  First we need a Mayor who works full time and is a Mayor even on the weekends.  We need to lower Cudahy’s overhead.  Take a hatchet and a scalpel to the budget.  It can be done without harming our first responders.

Remember “Fees” are taxes!  Apparently, fees are not taxes when you're complaining about taxes but they are when you're complaining about fees.  Fees by their very nature are regressive.  The shift will be onto the backs of the middle class.

See Cudahy has all of those problems to work on before “Code Compliance” would ever do something.  I was told from someone that “Code Compliance” is the single most important issue holding Cudahy back!  To which I told this Cudahy resident, “Welcome...  First visit to our planet?  Do you really live in Cudahy?”  They told me “Yes!”  Then I told them, then open your eyes and your ears because there is a hell of more important things to fix before putting “Code Compliance” in and hampering homeowners and homebuyers. 

You have to look past the yearning to increase revenue for the city in putting Cudahy back into a Code Compliance city.  Cudahy’s home problems are not because the Code Compliance was rescinded, it is because the ratio of renters to homeowners is wrong.

Now I am not saying just because our surrounding neighbors aren’t Code Compliance Cities that we should have to follow them, but I am saying that Cudahy’s problems don’t stem from not being Code Compliance.  To me that is “Barking up the wrong tree”. 

Treating a symptom instead of the cause is so easy to do.  Some are so delusional that the KRM is going to fix all of Cudahy’s problems and that isn’t true!  One must dig deeper.  We need to stop looking at and for false answers and deal with the harsh reality of things!  Someone told me that the KRM is the Iceport on rails.  I do think that is true!

Crime!  Taxes/Fees!  Jobs!  Income levels!  Ratio of renters to owners is out of whack!  Business to homeowner tax ratio is not right.  Fix those problems first and things in Cudahy will get better!

In 1998, Cudahy rescinded "code compliance," and we had problems before that and have problems since that.  We don't need more regulations.  That will not help the problems with homes.  Offer incentives for converting duplexes to single-family homes.

Look back at two posts I did called Cudahy's Image Problem or Part of Cudahy’s image problem is self-inflected for more on Cudahy’s problems.

Cudahy homes sales info from city-data.com

Pleas take note of the home assessments part:

About half of government spending comes from state and local governments, which can’t borrow money when they get in a bind.  And today, state and local governments are in an historic bind.

All but two states face budget shortfalls; in all, the deficits amount to about $168 billion, or about 25 percent of total state budgets.  That number is expected to rise to $350 billion by 2011, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.  If the Obama administration’s health care plan relies on Medicaid to cover more uninsured households, states could face a bill for tens of billions more.

As a result, the impact of the federal stimulus spending has been blunted by the sharp drop in state spending.

The falloff in local and state revenues for roads and bridges was so precipitous that the federal money really kind of got us back to about level,” said Engler of the manufacturers' group.  “There was really no net significant gain there.”

Local governments, which rely heavily on property taxes, also face budget shortfalls over the next several years as falling home prices force them to lower property assessments.

That means cutting spending and laying off workers, a process that is already under way.

Some related info on high taxes and its impact:

Florida Exodus: Rising Taxes Drive Out Residents

The Sunshine State seemed poised to keep on growing — until officials pushed residents too far.

Please read the story here.  Click Here