| New reporting highlights the latest example of Joe Mitchell’s long record of working for himself. As a state legislator, Mitchell voted for a bill to expand tax credits for real estate developers, Senate File 619 – a “housing tax credit that helped pad out his real estate portfolio.”
Then, Mitchell’s real estate businesses cashed in, “receiv[ing] a combined $2,559,880 in credits” thanks to the bill. Meanwhile, Mitchell opposes tax credits “used to develop low-cost housing across the United States.”
DCCC Spokesperson Katie Smith:
“Joe Mitchell voted for tax credits for real estate developers, which he used to cash in for $2.5 million for his real estate businesses – all while opposing housing tax credits that actually help working families. It’s no surprise that insider and lobbyist Mitchell only cares about helping himself.”
Iowa Starting Line: Joe Mitchell voted to grow a tax credit his companies later cashed in on
- The Republican running for Iowa’s 2nd Congressional District called this federal housing subsidy “a disaster.” Meanwhile, his own real estate companies collected $2.5 million from a similar state tax credit he voted to expand.
- Joe Mitchell wants Iowans to know he’s skeptical of government housing subsidies. As a Republican candidate for Iowa’s 2nd Congressional District, he’s called the federal Low-Income Housing Tax Credit or LIHTC “a disaster” that needs to be “totally reformed.”
- However, he doesn’t mention the housing tax credit that helped pad out his real estate portfolio in voicing his opposition to these subsidies.
- In May 2021, then-state Rep. Mitchell voted for Senate File 619, which expanded Iowa’s Workforce Housing Tax Credit — a state program that allocates $35 million annually through the Iowa Economic Development Authority.
- As a developer, he’s been a partner at BAM Development, Monroe Street Landing, Emerald Cove LLC, Bousselot & Mitchell Company, and J Mitchell Real Estate LLC, according to his House financial disclosure report.
- Both BAM Development LLC and Bousselot & Mitchell Company went on to develop housing projects that applied for, and received, Workforce Housing Tax Credits: a 16-unit development in Grinnell, a 30-unit development in Clear Lake, and a 20-unit development in Dyersville. The three projects received a combined $2,559,880 in credits.
- What the record does show…is a lawmaker who voted to grow a subsidy program, then built out a real estate portfolio that leaned heavily on that same program in the years that followed.
- Meanwhile, Mitchell has been less supportive of other housing development subsidies. For example, he’s been a critic of LIHTC which has been used to develop low-cost housing across the United States. […] Mitchell’s criticism is more rooted in the perspective of a developer.
- “It’s too much paperwork. It’s too much compliance. Too much cost,” Mitchell said on Business Talk With Meghan McNulty earlier this year.
- But that same critique—that subsidized developers capture more of the benefit than the public housing they’re supposed to produce—applies at least as easily to Iowa’s Workforce Housing Tax Credit. Unlike the federal credit, Iowa’s program isn’t targeted at low-income renters at all; it’s designed to fund homes in the $200,000 to $285,000 range for what state officials call “working professionals.”
- Mitchell told Business Talk he wants “Washington to look a little bit more like Iowa” on housing policy. He’s already gotten a preview of what that looks like: a program with fewer restrictions and less scrutiny than the one he calls a disaster — while $2.5 million of it went to companies he owns.
|
