Quote:
Originally Posted by CherryCreek
It should be noted that this analysis specifically examines office, retail, and multi-family income-producing properties, and does not include single-family for-sale homes, which are a primary driver of sprawling development. Drivable sub-urbanism, i.e. sprawl, is and has been systematically subsidized by federal, state, and local governments for more than half a century. This leads to the question of whether drivable sub-urban development patterns should continue to be subsidized, especially when the commercial real estate market is increasingly demanding walkable urbanism.[/I]
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The term subsidy or subsidies are generally misunderstood, misused and abused. Government expenditures (or subsidies) are merely the collective revenue of taxpayer/voter-approved allocations for the benefit of the greater, common good. It's not unusual to hear general references that conflate federal with state with city spending.
The answer is that government subsidies or expenditures should continue to be allocated according to taxpayer-voter preferences.
For example and specific to the City of Denver, voters last November exercised their preferences on a number of issues that added up to over $900 million in extra city investments.
Confusion and distortion at the federal level are used by both ends of the political spectrum.
For example under GWB, accelerated depreciation (actually depletion) was enacted as an incentive to the oil & gas industry. Some bemoan this 'artificial' lowering of gas prices as a bad thing. They're wrong and fail to understand how the system worked. It stimulated the whole fracking revolution that allowed market pricing to drop over time. I assume that 85% of the population much prefers lower to higher gas prices.
Flip the script
Under Obama generous incentives were enacted to promote renewable energy. This drove an entire industry to innovate leading to a lowering of costs over time. The reason that Xcel energy is now aggressively planning to replace coal burners with renewable energy is that costs have virtually been cut in half since incentives were enacted.
As for Federal Grants, they're generally allocated for the benefit and request of (primarily) state needs and preferences.