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It is election season, and class warfare is in full swing, whether it shows up in housing debates, school choice fights, or somewhere else on the agenda. It has become a new sport, whether on the elected dais or at the candidate debate table, to suggest that anyone who merely sounds like they should not be struggling is dismissed, and maybe even should be penalized. The latest target is 120% of Area Median Income, a number that sounds outlandish when you first hear it. But when you look at who actually lands there, the picture changes fast.

In Sarasota County, 120% AMI for a family of four comes out to $131,650 a year. Said on its own, that can sound like real money. Said next to who earns it, it looks a lot more modest, and quite frankly, those politicians who wave them off as too comfortable to matter in affordable housing look ridiculous.

Start with the people who make our community run. A starting teacher in Sarasota County earns $60,000 this year, the second-highest starting salary in Florida. A starting nurse at Sarasota Memorial Hospital earns about $70,928. Put a starting teacher and a starting nurse together in one household, and the combined income comes to $130,928, just $722 short of 120% AMI. That is not a hypothetical stretch. That is two of the most essential jobs in this community, landing almost exactly on the number some want to treat as a punchline.

Move the pairing slightly and the story holds. A starting sheriff's deputy fresh out of the county's academy sponsorship program earns $64,537. Pair a starting deputy with a starting nurse, and the household reaches $135,465, just above the 120% AMI line. A starting firefighter, using the department's own posted high end of $76,784, paired with a starting wastewater treatment plant operator earning $50,794, comes to $127,578, again right in that same narrow band.

None of these are outliers picked to make a point. They are ordinary pairings of people who teach our kids, treat our patients, patrol our streets, fight our fires, and keep our water clean, all landing at or near the exact threshold now being treated as the new boogeyman.

It is outlandish and very out of touch for any elected official or candidate to infer our nurses, teachers, deputies, and firefighters are having an easy time finding housing they can afford, yet you hear that at candidate forums and affordable housing agenda items on commission agendas in an attempt to get your vote. It is an absolute failure to understand the working class holding our community together.

When we set affordable housing policy or decide who deserves help finding a place to live, 120% AMI should not be dismissed as rich people who are easily finding housing. Before anyone treats that number as a punchline, they should do the actual math and talk to the families earning that income to learn about their real housing struggles.

Christine Robinson is the Chief Executive Officer of The Argus Foundation.

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