Monday, August 20, 2007

Belesi Swinging Wildly in the 14th LD Race

Is Schmitt running the Belesi campaign like he ran the Sabellico campaign 2 years ago? The inept comments from Belesi certainly make it seem like he's the parrot on Schmitt's shoulder.
In the Massapequa Post story about Schmitt ill-advised assessement freeze, Belesi says he supports the freeze 100% and "It's the only logical step at this time... There are 751 houses for sale in my district. People are leaving and we have to stop it. There's no affordable housing here and Schmitt's proposal is step (sic) in the right direction"
Saying the freeze is "the only logical step" means Belesi really doesn't know the issue very well. Belesi tries to make his point by saying that there are "751 houses for sale" in his district. Now I'm not sure where he got this number from. He could have researched Multiple Listing Service or just pulled the number out of his ass like Schmitt does.
But lets say that the "751" number is in the ballpark. Fine. In the 14th Legislative district, there are about 15000 homes. The "751" houses for sale would only be 5% of the homes in the district. What sounds like a big number - "751"- ends up a smaller "5%" when you look at the bigger picture.
And let's look at the bigger picture... what is the historical number for housing sales in the 14th LD at the time Belesi came up with his number?
Is his number higher or lower than the average?
Are those houses for sale remaining empty or are they being sold?
From my own research, houses that aren't priced at ridiculous levels are being sold.
Heck, one of the houses for sale Belesi saw might have been the former house of my new neighbor who bought a bigger house.
Did Belesi canvass the "751" sellers and ask why they were selling?
Belesi makes it sound as if they were all leaving because of reassessment. He doesn't take into account that some people are moving beacause they are looking for a bigger house or are moving because of a change of employment, death of the homeowner, a planned retirement to another state like Florida, taking advantage of a hot market to make alot of money on the house, or just plain wanting a change and moving on.
I'm sure there are some homeowners that are leaving because of taxes but the freeze on assessment WILL NOT LOWER TAXES. So those people will be leaving whether there is a freeze or not.
Don't be fooled by the republican rhetoric. Nothing they are saying about the assessment freeze will lower your taxes.
Belesi says that "people are leaving and we have to stop it." Well, not only are people leaving but new people are buying those houses for sale. The people leaving are not necessarily leaving because of the assessments.
He continues "
There's no affordable housing here and Schmitt's proposal is step (sic) in the right direction"
Here Belesi just gets so much confused. Affordable Housing is a seperate issue from assessments. Lowering or freezing assessments won't make housing affordable because homeowners will still try to get top dollar for their homes. The market is cooling but the days of $250,000 homes in Farmingdale or Massapequa are probably over. Schmitts proposal will not make a house affordable and is a step back to the Gullotta days.

Belesi is really out of his element and listening to Schmitt for campaign issues is a losing proposition.



1 comment:

MCM said...

These Belesi haters make me sick!!! On one hand you have a guy in office now who has proven himself time and time again to snake around the issues. On the other we have a STRONG sound values man, for a TAX FREEZE, who keeps fighting for our family oriented community. Are you kidding me?? Joe Belesi makes a general passing comment about 751 or 800 houses for sale in his district, and you turn it out to be malicious. Is that how you Dems win elections? Smearing candidates for idol conversation with constituents? WHAT A SHAME!!! GET OUT AND VOTE FOR JOE BELESI!!!!GIVE US ALL A LONG AWAITED BREAK!!!ITS SO IMPORTANT FOR US!!!