Moreover, raising the qualifying income for homebuying couples could not be more important here. Our middle class has been shredded. However, we badly need to fill in the holes in our middle class if we want to keep up the surpluses and assure that the District can support itself whether the economy is good or bad. Homebuyers of somewhat higher cost homes are more likely to have children and will pay more D.C. taxes. However, homebuyers of every income group are our target.
Homeowners save D.C. money just by living here.
Homeowners take care of their own blocks and neighborhoods, see to it that public schools provide high quality education, and insist that public officials deliver good services or be gone. The second provision, zero taxes on capital gains from certain investments anywhere in the city, is a unique breakthrough. For the first time, taxation on capital gains has been eliminated for an entire city. Neighborhood businesses and commercial strips are in deep trouble in every D.C. community, not only poor neighborhoods. Using poverty figures to determine what neighborhoods got the business tax incentives I won in 1997 unfortunately has had the unintended consequences predicted.