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Carver Communications - Index

Carver Communications - 4.15.09 - Index

On March 31, more than 1500 members
from around the state traveled to Austin
as a grassroots initiative to express our collective
concern over the need for aggressive
appraisal reform in Texas. The Legislative
Hill Visits marked a successful outreach by
Texas REALTORS® to show Texas
Legislators their support of private-property
rights issues and efforts to support the Texas
real estate industry. Speaker Joe Straus, along
with other Representatives and Senators representing
San Antonians, joined more than
100 local members in the State Capitol during
a morning reception for the San Antonio delegation.
It was a great opportunity for legislators
to meet with their constituents, hear and
address various issues presented to them that
morning.
Texas not alone in fight against
sales tax on real estate
Several real estate transfer tax proposals
have been filed during this legislative session.
SB 950, SB 934 and HB 3163 would
create a statewide transfer fee. All these proposals
add to the cost of homeownership, hurt
consumers' ability to purchase property and
By Robyn Locke,
Director of Political and Community Affairs
Successful Hill Visits in Austin
harm our economy. These proposals have
many ways of taxing you outside the sale of
real estate.
SB 942 filed by Senator Jeff
Wentworth contained a provision that would
enable counties to impose a real estate transfer
tax at a rate to be determined by the county
to pay for transportation needs. However,
after input from REALTORS® about the
harmful effects of a real estate transfer tax,
Senator Wentworth agreed to remove the
transfer tax provision from SB 942. Senator
Wentworth went a step further by later casting
a tie breaking vote to prevent another real
estate transfer proposal from being passed
out of committee.
A special thanks is extended to Senator Jeff
Wentworth for listening to concerns
expressed to him and his efforts to remove
transfer tax language from pending legislation
~ benefiting all Texans.
Similar statewide tax proposals have
been defeated recently in Idaho, Indiana,
Montana and Oregon. Municipal transfer
April 15, 2009 REAL ESTATE NEWSLINE 7
taxes have also surfaced, such as one in Santa
Fe, New Mexico. In Santa Fe, local REAL-
TOR® involvement supported by the
National Association of REALTORS®
(NAR) made the difference. Santa Fe citizens
ultimately realized how harmful a real estate
transfer tax would be and defeated the proposal.
REALTORS® earn major victory
in fight to keep banks out of
real estate
REALTORS® are celebrating a victory
in an eight-year battle to keep banks out of
real estate. President Obama signed the
Omnibus Appropriations Bill, which contained
a provision that permanently bans large
national banking conglomerates from entering
the real estate business by preventing the
Treasury and Federal Reserve, by rule, order,
or any other way, from opening the door to
such activities. This is a great victory for
REALTORS® and consumers.
Mortgage Interest Deduction
Limits Not Included in Proposed
Budget
When President Obama released his
proposed Fiscal Year 2010 Budget in late
February, the headline grabber was his proposal
to limit itemized deductions for individuals
earning more than $250,000 a year. This
limitation would reduce the value of not only
mortgage interest deductions for this group,
but would also reduce the value of their
deductions for state and local taxes, including
property taxes.
NAR responded quickly with letters of
opposition sent to the President and to every
member of the House and Senate. NAR also
purchased advocacy ads in the leading Inside
the Beltway newspapers. In Washington, no
proposal ever completely dies. Many, many
proposals, however, do go dormant. The general
perception is that the proposal to limit
deductions has gained limited traction.
As this article goes to press, this proposal
has found no champions in either the
House or the Senate. The House and Senate
Budget Committees have met to formulate a
Budget Resolution to provide a guide for revenues
and spending. NAR had been concerned
that the Budget Resolution might
include references to the Administration's
proposal to use a portion of the mortgage
interest deduction as a means of setting aside
funds to "pay for" revisions to the health
insurance and health care systems. In the end,
neither the House nor the Senate included any
reference to the proposal. The proposed
Budget Resolutions did direct the tax-writing
committees to set aside reserves for funding
health care reform, but left the challenge of
identifying the payment mechanism to the tax
writers.
Finally, NAR recently alerted members
that the Obama Administration had
announced its Making Home Affordable program
to help homeowners who were feeling
the crunch of the current economy. NAR has
created a detailed summary of the program
that is now available on REALTOR.org:
www.realtor.org/makinghomeaffordable. In
addition to the summary, there is other valuable
information including links to GSE refinancing
and modification programs.
Sources: Texas Association of REAL-
TORS® & National Association of REAL-
TORS®