Politicking in SLO County takes a nasty turn. Take a look at these mailers

The District 4 supervisor race just took a disgusting turn.

It was bad enough when Jimmy Paulding went after Supervisor Lynn Compton over offshore oil. (She says she's opposed, but Paulding faults her for not being stronger on the issue.)

If you didn’t catch it, he sent out a mailer with a scary color photo of a burning oil rig, as if to say, “See, this could happen here! And it will be all Lynn Compton’s fault!”

But that was child’s play compared to what the Compton campaign had up its sleeve.

A mailer sent out last week managed to slime both Jimmy and his dad, John Paulding.

What did the elder Paulding do that was so out of line?

He gave his son a house, though there's a bit more to the story.

Jimmy Paulding told us that he and his wife made house payments to his grandfather, who owned the home, for several years. When his grandfather died, the house passed to his father, John Paulding, who then gave it to his son and daughter-in-law.

What an awful thing for a parent to do, right?

And get this: On the deed, John Paulding wrote that he was transferring title to the house to his son, “in consideration of love and affection.”

Most people would find that touching. Not Compton. To her, a father’s generosity is something to mock in order to score political points.

“Love and affection was all it took for Jimmy to own an 1,850 sq. ft. home in Arroyo Grande, but his solution for everyone else is ‘tiny homes’ and ‘granny units,’” she writes, adding that Paulding is “entitled” and “out of touch.”

She also attacks him for supporting the county’s affordable housing fee, which she calls a “massive house tax.”

Let’s do some fact checking.

First of all, no one is forcing you into a tiny house; this is not some alternate version of "The Handmaid’s Tale" in which liberals round up McMansion owners and force them into 500-square-foot cottages. In other words, if you have a big house, you really can keep your big house.

Secondly, believe it or not, some people are in the market for “tiny homes” and “granny units.” For example, some renters might prefer a small, affordable house they can own, rather than paying hundreds of thousands of dollars in rent over their lifetimes.

As of now, though, those poor renters are out of luck, because the vast majority of houses built in the unincorporated county are large and expensive.

The county is trying to change that; the “massive house tax” Compton preaches against is one solution.

The “tax” is actually a fee levied on new construction. (Home builders have the option of including affordable units in their projects, rather than paying the fee.) Revenue from the fee helps fund affordable housing projects in much the same way the school “tax” pays for new schools and the parks “tax” pays for new parks.

Yes, all those fees increase the cost of housing. But if we’re going to call something a “massive house tax,” let’s examine Proposition 13, which Compton pledges to defend.

If they’re honest, even supporters of Prop. 13 have to acknowledge that it’s created a system that places a huge burden on young homebuyers who often wind up paying several thousand dollars more per year in property taxes than their older neighbors.

If anyone is justified in complaining about a “massive house tax,” it’s young people who are subsidizing their elders.

So let’s talk about who’s really “entitled” and “out of touch.”

It’s not Jimmy Paulding. It’s the generation of conservative homeowners who enjoy the benefits of a low tax rate, courtesy of Prop. 13, while standing in the way of solutions that would help young people afford homes.

One final note: It the candidates want to attack one another, have at it. But leave the moms and dads — and kids, too, of course — out of it, please.

This story was originally published May 22, 2018 at 12:35 PM with the headline "Politicking in SLO County takes a nasty turn. Take a look at these mailers."