REALTORS® Political Survival Fund (PSF) –
Your contribution helps support or oppose critical legislation, candidates
Every day, you invest your time, talent and resources into the real estate industry. It’s your life blood, your livelihood, and you must do all you can to provide for its continued success.
Making a contribution to the Colorado Association of REALTORS® Political Survival Fund (PSF) is one sure way you can make a sound investment in your profession. As a leading force in public policy debates, CAR’s Political Survival Fund is the only investment dedicated to furthering the interests of real estate professionals in our state legislature and city halls.
PSF is about much more than just political candidates
Many, many bills were presented in the last Colorado legislative session that would have or may still have an impact on your business.
Several pieces of legislation addressed the issue of affordable housing. Senate Bill 162 was introduced to create a state program aimed at affordable housing by collecting interest earned off escrow accounts – the very model currently used by CARHOF and others. Launching a state funding mechanism for this purpose would have been detrimental to the efforts of these previously established programs maintained by organizations in the private sector.
CAR research was able to track approximately $700 million dollars from federal, state and private sources to help fund affordable housing projects throughout the state. This staggering figure does not include housing assistance from banks, CHFA, local inclusionary zoning provisions, and many more funding mechanisms. Simply put, more money may not be the solution to this problem. Thankfully, Senate Bill 162 died in the Senate Health and Human Services Committee in early March.
Another effort put forth to fund affordable housing in Colorado was House Bill 1340. Operating in the form of a statewide transfer tax, this bill would have asked voters to increase the document fee from one cent to five cents per $100 for residential property and two cents for every $100 on commercial property. In opposing this legislation, CAR felt a statewide transfer tax would have increased the burden on consumers earning less money, added another barrier to homeownership and created an unfair allocation of funds from region to region. House Bill 1340 died in the House Finance Committee in early April.
Regulatory legislation generally bears careful watch. During this legislative session, the Department of Regulatory Agencies (DORA) conducted an evaluation of the performance of each agency subject to review. The Division of Real Estate and the Real Estate Commission were under sunset review. CAR believes that maintaining an active, well-funded and efficient Division of Real Estate and Real Estate Commission is the least restrictive means to protect the public interest. The home buying and selling public is protected when the state establishes the minimum knowledge necessary to conduct a real estate transaction, assures the on-going competence of real estate licensees through continuing education, has a strong investigatory arm to quickly and efficiently investigate complaints and a disciplinary process that enforces existing laws and regulations in a timely manner consistent with due process.
CAR was proactively involved with the sunset review process, offering many of the recommendations that were included in the final version of the bill signed by the Governor in April. The Real Estate Commission will not undergo the sunset process again until 2017.
Many more pieces of legislation that directly impact your business were addressed by CAR. Check the website www.ColoradoRealtors.com to understand how CAR and your PSF dollars worked for you in the areas of protecting private property rights, adverse possession, required carbon monoxide alarms in residential properties and more.
Looking ahead
November ballot initiatives that would directly impact residential and commercial real estate are being monitored by the Association’s Issues Mobilization Committee.
The CAR Board of Directors voted to oppose Initiative 103, which would have created a dedicated revenue stream to fund affordable housing in Colorado through imposing a rate of four cents for each one hundred dollars paid for all real estate transactions. Housing Works for Colorado, a citizen’s group that was working to get this initiative on the ballot, recently suspended its petition drive because of limited resources and a short time frame to get the required signatures. The organization plans to regroup and set new direction, so you can expect to see something similar in the future.
Another initiative being considered for the November ballot is an increase in the tax rate on commercial properties from 29 percent to 34 percent.
Getting involved is simple
These measures, and many more to come in the future, bear careful watch and necessitate involvement to protect the real estate industry and your profession. You aren’t being asked to give up your valuable time and effort to become more involved in the political process. You don’t need to go to city hall and voice your concerns. You don’t need to lobby your local representatives on real estate issues. All you need to do is write a personal check today (made out to PSF). Whether the check is for $1,000, $250, $99 or less, every dollar is an important investment in the industry. By participating in PSF, you make your voice heard along with hundreds of thousands of your professional colleagues across the country. PSF provides you a seat at the table.
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