Coffman Wants to Increase Housing Costs to Decrease Housing Costs

My opponent is correct that housing affordability is one of the biggest concerns for Pflugerville families. Everyone wants the chance to own, not just rent. But here’s the reality he's not facing: City Council and the policies he advocates for are the major reason housing costs keep climbing.

He thinks the answer is to spend another half a million dollars(!) of your tax dollars on consultants for a year-long “development code rewrite,” after our city council already burned the past year on an “audit” nobody’s ever seen. He calls this “a step in the right direction.” I call it more of the same waste and delay that directly INCREASES housing costs by coming from our property taxes.

Let’s look at what he’s actually proposing:

• Roundtables, resolutions, and roadmaps. These don’t lower housing costs. They’re all talk.

• Another year waiting on consultants. That means another year of rising rents and families priced out while Pflugerville falls further behind.

• Expedite reviews only for projects that fit “affordability goals” defined by him. That’s just more micromanagement and favoritism.

There is plenty of easy things we can do NOW to reduce housing costs, without wasting more money:

• Eliminate the roadway impact fee

  Right now Pflugerville tacks $7,000–$13,000 onto every new home in fees. That gets passed straight to buyers and renters. Removing it makes housing immediately more affordable and keeps us competitive with neighbors like Hutto and Round Rock.

• Put a shot clock on permits

  Builders shouldn’t be stuck in limbo for months waiting on city hall. If Pflugerville doesn’t act in 30 days, permits are automatically approved. That cuts costs and gets houses on the ground faster.

• Refocus spending on essentials The what is likely to be $250 million+ city hall project is proof of how badly council priorities are off track. While it’s too late to stop construction, I pledge we will never again waste that kind of money on vanity projects while families can’t afford homes. Every dollar moving forward must go to infrastructure that directly serves residents: roads, drainage, utilities, and safety.

• Real transparency

  Instead of paying consultants for reports no one reads, we’ll publish a plain-English breakdown of which city rules add to housing costs. That way residents know where their money is really going and we can cut the worst offenders.
  

We can’t study or spend our way out of this problem. Families need relief now. The choice is clear: more of the same tax-and-spend policies that got us here, or a logical fiscally sane approach that puts Pflugerville families first.