Rent control and wage hikes

Leave it up to Democrats to get it backwards by running Washington state’s minimum wage up to $13.50 an hour before putting rent control measures in place. Now look at the high rent mess our state is in.

After all the landlords throughout the state got done high-fiving each other that minimum wage was going up multiple years in a row they jacked up their rents accordingly to get their overly fair share of that extra paycheck money. The same one-room apartments and tiny houses they have been renting since the 1980s, probably with the same appliances from the 1980s, went from $500.00 a month eight yrs ago to $1,050.00 a month now. 40-plus-year-old rentals getting ransom-rent pricing. Fix your mistake, Democrats, and push for rent control measures.

And the folks that say housing developers won’t build in Washington state if rent and housing prices are too low are idiots. Our state has plenty of hometown developers and contractors already and plenty of them will build here in the best of times and worst of times — and we should not court out-of-state dollars to develop our cities and towns for housing.

J.L. Darby

Spokane Valley