I read in The Oregonian that Oregon House Speaker Tina Kotek is championing rent restrictions and rent control (“Kotek explains rent control bill, landlord pains,” Feb. 5). It’s always easy for politicians to use landlords’ money to fund these campaigns where they look like heroes to the renters. The property owner has a loan in most cases and payments, property tax, insurance. If the renter does not pay, the Portland area is the worst for being able to evict someone where it could take six months with zero income before a unit is vacated. And trust me, when the renter leaves it’s not a few hundred dollars to get it back to being rentable. It’s more like thousands.
How about instead of putting the onus on property owners’ shoulders, Kotek offers to shoulder some of these costs and reduce, or abate property taxes and fees for one year in exchange for keeping rents low. Oops. Like all politicians, Tina Kotek finds it much easier to use our money, our backs, and our properties than backing her ideas with any government resources.
Jim Weaver, Milwaukie
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