The feasibility on this idea is low. I have never seen a single document in writing from my land lord–legally, a written contract isn’t totally necessary. While this may be naivete on my part, I would guess that the majority of those 40% are month to month with no written contract unless problems have arisen. Without providing undue burden on land lords and managers, I don’t know how we pull this one off. Do you require land lords to provide this documentation? If so, how is it enforced? Is it even legal to enforce such an ordinance? I sort of doubt it. On the other hand, do you want the the city/county to spend the money to mail out notices to all of the renters every time a new rent is taken up? I don’t think that this direction is going to gain any real traction.

Now let’s say just for arguments sake that as home ownership increases and awareness of property taxes increases, property taxes actually decrease. We could work to see that 40% of renters go down. I am going to go out on a limb and say that the vast majority of suburbs have rental numbers under that 40%. The reason, you may ask. Zoning in suburbs does not allow for many renters. So…push the suburbs thru regionalism to recognize that our region needs a zoning plan to spread out renters and you may see your little scenario play out.

If you really want to get the most bang for your activism, I would focus on school board elections. I think that something like 8% of the registered voters vote in the school board. They are going to kill us this year with their share of the property tax increase pie.

If I have overlooked something, just let me know.

best

I would like to be a homeowner and a landlord at some point, and can see how this policy is helpful from that vantage point.

Furthermore, as a current City of Milwaukee renter, I would really like to know just how much property taxes are affecting my payments.

Keep us updated on what your alderman has to say…