In Madison politics, the big special interests aren’t oil companies or logging enterprises, nor are they abortion interest groups or gun groups. The big special interests are the same people that rip you off on your security deposit and don’t fix your dishwasher: the landlords.
Why, exactly, do landlords spend so much money buying City Council and mayoral candidates? The answer is that tenants’-rights reforms threaten to curb some of their illegal behavior, behavior that has subsidized and expanded their profit margins.
As a student, tenant and advocate for our rights, I recognized very early that for my reform plans to be taken seriously, I would have to remain uncompromised by these special interests. Therefore, I have written and signed a clean campaign pledge, which declares that I will take no contributions or other campaign assistance from landlords, developers, realtors, bar owners or anyone else whose profit is affected by decisions I might make as an alder.
So, with no favors owed to special interests, I have developed a comprehensive agenda for tenants’ rights that will substantially limit unscrupulous behavior by landlords.
The centerpiece of my tenants’-rights agenda is security-deposit reform. Undoubtedly, you or someone you know has lost hundreds of dollars from their security deposit because of “carpet cleaning” charges or other illegal deductions. It happened to me two years ago. Even though our current laws outlaw this practice, it continues to happen at unprecedented rates because the only recourse we have to get our money back is a lawsuit. Given that students rarely have the lawyer, money and many months that this process requires, landlords have little to fear when they steal our money.
My plan for security-deposit reform is simple and inexpensive and will be very effective at protecting us from unscrupulous landlords. Instead of our security deposit checks, which we technically own, being held by our landlords, they would be held for the whole lease by the city treasurer’s office. At the end of the lease, landlords could file a simple piece of paperwork if they wish to make deductions.
Obviously, if we leave a giant hole in the wall, our landlords deserves the money to repair the damage, and they could easily obtain it. However, if a landlord tries to file a deduction for a carpet-cleaning charge, which is illegal, the city treasurer will deny their request. Under this plan, tenants will save thousands of dollars every year in money that would have otherwise been stolen.
Although security-deposit reform is the most innovative and far-reaching plan I have, there are many other areas where we can make improvements in tenants’ rights. First, we should eliminate discrimination against low-income Section 8 tenants, a practice that ghettoizes our city’s poor.
We must also ban so-called “earnest” payments, a second security-deposit fee that some landlords charge mid-lease. Furthermore, we must demand the registration and licensing of landlords. Our city already licenses food-cart vendors, but where we live every day is much more important than where we grab a smoothie. Finally, we must demand that there be increased police enforcement of Chapter 32 violations and a full-time building inspector that works only to enforce tenants’ rights.
These are issues that affect you every day, and that means that this election matters to you. Voter turnout is historically low in these elections because students tend to think that city government doesn’t affect us very much. Nothing could be further from the truth.
To find out my positions on sensible drug and alcohol policy, expanded downtown entertainment options, increasing the minimum wage and the environment, please take a moment to peruse my website, www.austinking.org. The policies of our city government affect us intimately, and that’s why we need a say in the formation of those policies. Please, get out and vote this Tuesday, Feb. 18. And bring a friend.
Austin King is a UW senior majoring in Spanish. He is a candidate for District 8 alder.