The Cost of Building

The Mandarins in the New York City Department of Buildings have seen fit, in their limited wisdom, to raise the fines that apply to various DOB violations.

The reason they give for these increases is that the cost of construction in the city has become so high, that violation fines have become insignificant by comparison. Therefore, they say, builders and contractors don't see the existing fines as a deterrent for unsafe practices. For them, it's just another cost of doing business.

I expect that this will have unintended consequences. Every law, rule,tad and penalty ever imposed on us has had unintended consequences - or at least consequences that our duly elected and appointed overlords won't admit to intending.

There is an obvious idea in taxation: the more you tax something, the less of it you'll get. Tax policy depends on this idea. You want less carbon? Tax it more. You want less tobacco? Tax it more.

So too, if you want less construction, tax it more. I'm sure the DOB doesn't see it that way, but that's the way it is. It doesn't matter whether you call a forced payment to the government a tax or a penalty. Either way, you are increasing the cost of the thing.

In this case, that might have the unintended consequence of inhibiting construction, or at least, inhibiting requests for construction permits. Whether the intended consequence of increasing safety comes to pass is something we won't know for a long time.

For the raw information on the new fines, see https://rules.cityofnewyork.us/content/amendment-buildings-penalty-schedule-0.