No, no, no, no. This is stupid and incredibly unconstitutional and will only give people the chance to pat themselves on the backs when we still won't have Senate votes or budget autonomy.

Why are we so focused on voting? If we don't get full representation, can't they just eliminate federal taxes? There. That wasn't so hard.

This thing is DOA in the Senate anyway.

By the way, for all of you that think the Puerto Rico system of no federal taxation is a good idea for DC, consider this. While PR residents do not pay federal income tax, they do pay a very high Commonwealth income tax that essentially equals the combined state+federal tax in most states. So the out of pocket cost is the same.

Residents of Puerto Rico are not eligible for SSI benefits, that means that low income disabled persons and older persons can not get the standard SSI benefit of $603 per month and instead get a special benefit of $64 per month (because this is not an entitlement, the monthly rate is based on how much Congress appropriates to the program).

In addition, because Medicare DSH payments to hospitals are based in part on the number of SSI patients, and PR essentially has no SSI patients, hospitals that serve poor communities lose out on this federal benefit.

Finally, PR residents can not take claim the Earned Income Tax Credit which is a significant benefit for the working poor.

Bottom line is that residents of PR and the other insular areas pay about the same out of pocket in taxes and get far less in return from the federal government. It is a bad deal, especially for the poor.

If you think housing is expensive now, imagine what prices and rents would be like if DC became a tax haven.

Bring it on! I'll be closing on my newly renovated condo before the end of the year.

Believe me, I know how unlikely it is. But I'd be much more interested in getting involved in a tax-free movement than a "please help, I don't have enough politicians looking after me" movement.

The above poster knows more about the PR situation than I do, so it's not the best model.

And I'm sure the local government would jack up their taxes if this ever happened, so im not sure we'd see an influx of homeowners from Rockville and Ashburn.

But it would remove the whole "NTWR" thing as a topic of conversation, which would do wonders for our little town here.

well, you didn't but condo, then, you bought a dorm room. Bully for you. You might not lose your ass quite as badly as some though, so I'll do a happy dance for you. Warren Buffett could take some tips from your fiscal acumen.

evidently by failing to come up with anything approaching an actual rejoinder. A true sign of someone who works on the hill, indeed.

well, we're already at least -8% YOY while luminaries like "hillrat" still brag about their narrow sighted investments and claim that someone would be foolish enough to sell them an asset at a 40-50% discount. As such, 20% might be a conservative estimate. However, our esteemed "hillrat" might nonetheless still be able to find a greater fool than he. I wish it the best.

eh, I made millions off of pets.com stock. I'm fine. Rolled all the profit into Enron options and I'm flying, baby!

Re: Puerto Rico:

Not to open a long discussion on Puerto Rico because I don’t know what their deal is, but there’s a difference between not paying federal income taxes and not paying FICA and medicare. Presumably if they were to waive our federal income taxes, we’d still pay FICA and medicare. Thus we’d still be entitled to social security and medicare, which is to say we’d get nothing just like everyone else will. (For the record, wikipedia says that Puerto Ricans do not pay federal income taxes, but pay FICA and receive full social security but reduced medicare payments)

But truly, anyone who has even an iota of affection for DC wouldn’t even suggest an idea like this. It would be catastrophic, especially to the few remaining working-class neighborhoods. And anyone with a rent would probably end up forking over to the landlord whatever gains they got from the waiver, that is if they could even afford to live here anymore at all.

Thankfully there’s no way is hell that this would ever happen. Although that flat tax for DC proposal might have the effect of lowering the federal income tax for at least some DC residents. Although that doesn’t seem likely to pass either.

HR - I'm glad your situation worked out. But on the flip side, far too often I've seen tenants abuse that first right of refusal thing and demand extortion payments from property owners in return for not gumming up a sale. I'm a small time landlord, and I've actually turned down possible purchase of two small buildings on the Hill because tenants have demanded extortion payments in return for signing off on their first right of refusal. Both times the tenant clearly had no actual interest in purchase (in large part because the buildings needed a ton of work), but they felt it was their God given right to demand cash simply to let the owners sell the property.

Your group clearly had actual intent to purchase, so the end result was a win for all involved, but so many don't, and they use the law as a tool for legalized extortion.

Hey tjhks, how do those sour grapes taste?

Ever notice that the people shouting the loudest about the bubble bursting are those who don't own? Cetainly things are slowing down; there is no way the market could sustain the activity of 2002-2005. And people who bought recently as an investment with the intention of "flipping" might not do as well as they'd hoped. But anyone who's in it for the long haul will be fine. Even if prices plummet, they won't stay depressed forever.

Congratulations on your condo conversion, Hill Rat. It was a great decision and a wise investment. You must be thrilled that all of your hard work is about to pay off.

Thanks for the props guys. This conversion has been (and continues to be) a struggle but aside from helping my wife give birth to our daughter, it's the single most gratifying thing I've ever done in my life.

Hillman - Bullseye, as usual. The bottom will never drop out of a market like DC, prices may go down a little; but the more likely scenario is that houses will stay on the market longer and you will no longer have bidding wars over places that need a gut job renovation.

Let the haters hate, that's what they do. You and the other folks out there that had the courage & vision to invest when things weren't so rosy in DC and the folks like myself who didn't let the prospect of hard work and a lot of paperwork keep us from jumping at a good opportunity, we'll laugh all the way to the bank!

If we had a tax haven in DC you can bet your sweet butt that DC local politicians would immediately move to make sure that laws regarding affordable housing, etc., were changed to make sure we didn't become just a super-rich city.

Problem is, DC politicians would once again focus on public housing for the very poor as the answer, instead of focussing on workplace housing.

Rent control, stupid and counterproductive entity that it is, would then actually possibly be a useful tool for some lower income workers. There really are people in this town paying dirt cheap rent for apartments all over town. And you bet your bottom dollar that those folks would fight like hell to hang onto their apartments, and local politicans would certainly be on their side.

It would only be fair to means test rent control at that point (in fact, this should have been done years ago.... along with requiring anyone getting a rent control apt in DC to actually register as a DC resident, pay taxes here, register their car here, etc....). Someone making $300,000 a year doesn't have a right to a huge apt on the Hill for an artificially low price.

So, yes, the changes in DC would be dramatic. But I feel certain that the DC govt would find a way to make sure there are still plenty of poor people in town.

It's the working class people that would probably lose out.

But a reasonably proactive city government could find ways to prevent that. In fact, with their massive new tax dollars from the influx of new residents, they could probably build tens of thousands of rental units for actual workforce workers.

It'd be a win-win for everyone. But it would require actual reasonable practices, not class warfare rhetoric and the idiotic housing practices of years past, where the only ones the city cares about are the very very poor, and they don't differentiate between those that can't work and those that just won't work.

DC real estate was undervalued for years beginning with the riots and continuing through the Barry years. Now that the city is turning around, real esate prices are pretty much where they should be. Prices will level off and and property will stay on the market a bit longer, but there will be no crash.

And even if the market completely tanks, I still have a fabulous apartment in a city that I love. My monthly payment is much lower than what rent would be on a comparable-sized place. I have a nice tax deduction each year. I can walk to work and almost every Metro line. I'm just a few blocks from shopping, restaurants, and nightlife, and I have fantastic views from my roof. Even if it wasn't valued at almost three time what I paid (which it is), I cannot see how that was a bad, short-sighted investment.

Let people like tjhks bitch and moan. More than likely, they won't be here next year anyway.

Hillman, you're my idol. I wish I had your forsight 10-15 years ago. When I think of all the money I pissed away that could have been invested...OY! At least I got in when I did.