A new “Habitat Law”, drafted and supported by Frente Para la Victoria (FPV) legislators, was passed yesterday by the Buenos Aires Province Senate.
A gated community in Buenos Aires province (Alex Steffler, Wikimedia)
The law states that large property developments, such as country clubs, gated communities, and private cemeteries, must give up 10% of the cost of the property to fund social housing.
The lower chamber had already approved the bill last month even though the UCR and Unión Pro Peronista deputies have opposed it. Francisco De Narváez, of the Frente Peronista, said he would ask the governor of the province of Buenos Aires to veto the law. De Narvaéz said the law was “unconstitutional” and that if the governor did not veto it “they would take the issue to court”.
“It will produce less work and will not generate one piece of social housing. Destroying private property is not the way forward,” said De Narvaéz.
“This law shows the tip of the iceberg, revealing the way in which Kirchnerism sees society, they believe that private property is an evil,” he added.
Yesterday Buenos Aires Governor Daniel Scioli, member of the FPV, said that he would consider vetoing the law if it weakened the right to private property. However, today his chief of cabinet, Alberto Pérez, told Radio Continental that the law would be promulgated, stating however that “a strict regulation will be put in place so that the right to private property is not violated”.
Pérez added that “to the spirit of creating more social land has to be added that of protecting private property and acquired rights”.
The law also includes clauses that make the properties that are permanently inhabited by one or more families “unseizable”. It also allows for a raise in taxes on properties whose value increases by additional construction or changes in the area they are built in.
At other sites, they mentioned that the 10% grab would only apply to “new” projects (whatever “new” means). If this is so, it could simply be a 10% land purchase tax in disguise, with an angry snarl in the general direction of gated communities.
What I find a bit troubling is the tendency of creating huge bundles of laws that address all sorts of things that are only loosely related, and then passing the whole package at once. This is often a trick used to hide something nasty in plain view. Not sure if this is the case here, though.
- Werner
I believe Cristina is a Marxist pretending to be a Peronist. All of her policies: nationalization of industries, restructure of the economy, redistribution of land (land reform,) follow Marxist doctrine. I wish she would come out of the closet so we would all know where we is going with this…