MITOKIAI

Home Fixup lncenlive

/^lNE OF THE major problems in getting more \,t people interested in home improvement for their own homes is that they lack motivation to spend all that money fixing up the kitchen or add' ing another room. A recent pioposal by John R. Livingston before the National Home Improvement Council came up with that dandiest of all incentives money.

We think that incisive thinking is needed to get the home improvement business off its heels and on the run. Home improvement, for all its present millions of dollars spent, still has only scratched the surface of its potential.

The idea is to ofier the homeowner a tax credit if he fixes up his house. Something he can take off his income tax. Livingston called it a "homeowner inveshent tax credit." Another possibility he men' tioned was an allowance for depreciation of the homen as landlords do with apartnents and homes they renL

Under the present laws the man who rents out property has an advantage over Harry Homeowner. Real estate taxes and interest paid for money invested in your property can be deducted by ,both a landlord and a homeowner. The amount of this tax credit is the same for both depending on income.

But the difference begins when the matter concerned is maintenance, repair and depreciation. The landlord can deduct (tax credit) these from his taxes, but the homeowner cannot. So it pays the landlord to keep up his place and it also helps him keep down his costs and his tenants' cost by charging lower rents than he could without this advantaoe,

The old saw about renting-that all you'll have after 20 years is a handful of receipts-is true. We believe firmly in the great American dream of €veryone being able to own his own home, And we also believe that som,ething ought to be done so that once the homeowner buys he is able to keep the house in good shape.

The figures on home maintenance and repair point out rather starkly the need for incentives to get the public improvement and repair-minded. Last year $12 billion was spent. Plenty of money you say? Sure, but divide that 'by 6O million homes and it's only $200 per year. Not enough to main' tain and improveo that's for sure. But the real picture is seen by further studies which show that 43 percent, or almost half, spend less than $100 per year to keep up tleir homes. Many spend nothing.

The case for a tax credit to help along business and the home owner in the vital job of keeping our nation's homes in good repair is a strong one and one that we endorse. While details will difrer on the exact route to take. the direction is clear. And the need immediate.

Contact your association and/or your congresspan and request that the necessary steps be taken to get this idea in motion.

It's Where you Find lt

Good ideas on how to make more money through promoting home improvement are apt to pop up anywhere.

A case in point is a recent missive from (of all people) Postmaster General Lawrence F. O'Brien, who declared May 16 through 2l as "Mailbox Improvement Week." Well, why not. It's legal, and who knows, it might even be the starting point of doing over the whole place.

The Postmaster General declared with straight face that they hope to promote the best possible appearance for the ten million rural and seven million city mailboxes. You can tie in with the First Lady and the President's efforts to beautify the nation by painting, putting flowerboxes around, and just generally sprucing up the old mailbox, O'Brien concluded.

nNE FINE SPRING day recently. we v amhled over lo Sausalito to see Bob Cehring, owner of Service Lumber Co., to get a little dope and a few pictures of his new four acre yard located 17 miles north at a sleepy little town called Black Point (honest, look on your map-it's along the highway connecting Novato to Vallejoi.

Bob Gehring is a fine lumberman and husinessman who is not iust satisfied bv "being where the action ii." Bob wants to be where the o'action is going to be."

But a funny thing happened as we started to write this about Service Lumber's move to Black Point. Digging into our trusty re{erence file {or a little additional background material, \r,(' came upon this sterling quote, dateline April 16. 1955 (exactly 1l years ago) :

"More and mort. we have come to believe that Marin County will soon be the