The Soviet politician and revolutionary who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953 had a significant influence on world economics that apparently remains to this day in the American state of California. Born in Georgia, part of the Russian Empire, his father was a shoemaker and his mother a house cleaner. Stalin was educated to be a priest but while a student at the seminary, he embraced Marxism and became an avid follower of Vladimir Lenin. He did not have an education in economics. As Communist Party General Secretary, Stalin in 1928 implemented his first Five Year Plan which included the creation of collective farms based on his vision of the economic plan for Russia. In 1954 China’s Communist Part implemented their own Five Year Plan. Russian and Chinese farmers had no input into the transfer of their property, their equipment and their livestock to the State. Their agricultural communities were altered to fit Stalin’s vision of what society should be.

We in the United States do not have a clear vision of who determines the economic planning for our communities. Most citizens believe incorrectly that the overall planning for our communities is done by local elected officials. In fact, that overall control of our communities is not determined by the voters, the mayor, city council or the vision of the residents of what their community should be.

EVERY EIGHT YEARS, the state of California sets a target for the number of homes needed for each income level to meet the housing needs of all Californians. Local governments must plan for enough housing to meet the housing need in their own community. We call this the Regional Housing Needs Assessment (RHNA).

From Governor Newsome “California must plan for more than 2.5 million homes over the next eight-year cycle, and no less than one million of those homes must meet the needs of lower-income households. This represents more than double the housing planned for in the last eight-year cycle. Through meaningful accountability reforms passed in recent years, the state is ensuring that this housing is not only planned for, but actually gets built. So the eight year plan is mandated by State government and in fact the States are mandated to conform to the Federal housing plan.

In mandating the number of housing units, the type of housing units and the classification of occupants for those units the State (and the Federal Government) determine the future for towns within the State. The vision of our communities no longer rests with the residents of the communities. The State gets to determine how many people will live in each town by mandating the housing that must be supplied.

Off course a central question is why does California need to plan for more than 2.5 million homes over the next eight-year cycle. Why do unknown people who do not live in our communities have the ability to determine the nature of the communities? If a town of 15,000 is envisioned by the unknown people being a community of 40,000 in the future – that is not the same as the free enterprise system determining what size communities become. Stalin and Mao Zedong would certain recognize this system of government.