Key Players

• Affordable housing advocates and their constituents. A coalition to pass, increase, or redirect a real estate transfer tax will often start with lower income people, housing advocates, and others concerned about affordable housing and displacement. Employers concerned about the dispersion and displacement of some of their workforce, and other less usual affordable housing advocates should be included.
• Real estate industry . Realtors and homebuilders will be involved in any RETT proposal. The only question is whether their involvement will be as bitter opponents or allies. To win them over, make sure that RETT funded programs have some clear benefit for the industry's members.
• Property owners . Property owners, especially low- or middle-income homeowners, are going to be concerned about how the tax will affect them.  This is especially true if punitive anti-speculation measures are being considered. Education about the benefits the tax, along with considering carefully focused exemptions, can bring them on board.
• State and local governments. Local governments are likely to be supportive of a new source of revenue as long as it will not be too politically costly. State governments' attitude can range from hostile to ambivalent to supportive, depending on the strength of the coalition, the political climate, on taxation in general, and whether the proposal is a statewide measure that will bring funding to state agencies as well.
• Tax specialists are useful in advising on the structure of the tax and the implications of different options in both achieving the goal of reducing displacement and in putting together an effective coalition.

Ingredients for Success

Be specific about how the money will be used. Jaimie Ross, of 1000 Friends of Florida, says the biggest mistake she's seen in campaigns for RETTs is that "all they're trying to do is get money and give it out to local governments."  Communications should explain how the money will be used, and how programs will be held accountable. Such measures give potential allies something to rally around. It makes a RETT proposal seem less like another tax and more like a way to fund something specific and desirable.

Get some real estate professionals on your side. In 1986, Block Island, Rhode Island, won permission from its legislature to set up a land trust and fund it with a real estate transfer tax. That same year, several other Rhode Island municipalities lost similar measures. The difference, according to a January 12, 2002 article in the Block Island Times , is that local real estate interests supported Block Island's proposal. 

Maintain the integrity of compromises. In order to pass the Sadowski Act, a 1992 Florida law which increased the state RETT and directed a portion of it to affordable housing, low-income advocates had to lower what they considered an acceptable percentage of funds devoted to very low-income individuals. In turn, the realtors lowered their goal for percentage of funds directed to homeownership. "We'd rather have a smaller slice of the pie than a big slice of no pie," says Jaimie Ross, who brought the various parties together for their first meetings. Once the coalition reached their agreement, neither side independently tried to have the numbers adjusted in their favor. Ross says this consistency kept the coalition together even after the legislation was passed.

Create Strong Accountability Standards. When devoting RETT revenue to a particular use, create detailed guidelines as to how the money will be used and how expenditures will be documented and reported. 

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