Housing and Economic Development

Saving Tax Dollars with Forward-Thinking Ideas
By Sam Yoon

Our city faces a budget shortfall of $140 million, possibly forcing us to lay off hundreds of teachers, police officers and firefighters, as well as custodians, bus drivers, librarians, and cafeteria workers. We have a full-blown fiscal crisis in Boston.

Over the past few months, the mayor has asked unions to accept a wage freeze. Some unions accepted the freeze and some stayed silent. And we didn’t hear much else.

Unfortunately, it’s more divide and conquer politics, it’s playing the blame game; and often, the media ends up distracting us from the tough issues that we need to address.

One of my top priorities as we wrestle with our fiscal crisis is to fundamentally change the way we do business as a city. A wage freeze is temporary and will have to be repaid. But our city, in the long term, needs to be more efficient and more fiscally responsible. To do this, we will have to take a good, hard look at ourselves.

This fiscal crisis presents us with an amazing opportunity to modernize the way Boston does business.

I think we need to make these changes – permanent changes. Here are some of my ideas:

- Drastically reduce overtime spending by the Police Department and others
- Eliminate unnecessary jobs at the high end of the salary scale
- Significantly reduce School Department consulting contracts
- Modernize the Fire Department; eliminate obsolete technology
- Do something with underutilized city property

That is why as chair of the Committee on Post-Audit and Oversight, I held a public hearing in Codman Square to discuss these changes. It’s important to me to get your input, because it’s only through open and public process that we can bring the change we need to Boston.

Sam’s Record on Housing and Economic Development

Boston is an expensive city to live in and the demand for housing has outpaced affordable options. When Sam was Chair of the Housing Committee, he led the charge to ensure that people of every means can live and raise a family in Boston.

Sam was the first councilor to address the foreclosure crisis. Following his lead, Sam’s proposal of a public-private partnership with banks to develop affordable housing was embraced by the administration.

Sam’s work to amend the tax-deferral rate won tax-relief for seniors. He has spoken out forcefully on the need to streamline and de-politicize the permitting process in the city, recognizing that this process had to be revamped to benefit businesses and residents.

Sam has worked with the state and federal government to ensure that needy residents receive fuel assistance during the winter months.

Sam’s commitment to making sure that taxpayer’s money is spent properly led him to order reviews of the city’s fleet and fuel usage, as well as the city’s payroll audit function.

Sam has organized and held meetings with developers and housing activists to both promote affordable housing and to explore the use of trained mediators in tenant / landlord disputes.

Because of his extensive background in affordable housing development, Sam knows that it is only by working together that we can properly tackle the economic challenges that face us. That’s why he wants to hear from you.