Dear friends and neighbors,
Last week brought two major milestones: the halfway point of session and the house of origin cut-off. The cut-off was the deadline for each house to send non-budget bills to be passed out of the House and onto the Senate for consideration, and vice versa. A lot of good bills, large and small, advanced from the House to the Senate where they will be given another public hearing which will allow members of the public additional opportunity to offer opinions and input on the final content of legislation.
The passing of the cut-off deadline also means that any legislation that did not make it out of its house of origin is unlikely to pass through the Legislature this session, with the exception of budget-related legislation. If you would like to read about the highlights of the session so far, you can find a brief press release here.
While we have been moving forward with policy legislation, the focus remains on the budget. Tomorrow, we will get the latest revenue forecast and know where we stand on developing the budget for the next two years.
Of special interest to our district
Monday, Governor Chris Gregoire signed Senate Bill 5763 that would continue the collection of a sales tax from Canadians shopping in Washington State. I was honored to work on this legislation with my seatmates from the 40th district, Senator Kevin Ranker and Representative Jeff Morris.
Last summer British Columbia changed its sales tax to effectively combine Canada’s federal goods and services tax and B.C.’s regional provincial sales tax into a single value-added tax on purchases. The change made Canadian shoppers of certain states and provinces without sales tax eligible for a sales-tax exemption. With the signing of SB 5763, this exemption will come to an end.
This legislation ensures that critical funding for both our state and our local governments will be invested back into the community and into critical public services.
Protecting the family home
We’ve all been hearing stories about the impact that foreclosures have had on our neighbors and communities. In fact, in just the past two years, more than 77,000 families lost their homes to foreclosure here in Washington. With that in mind, the House has passed a pair of bills to help protect the family home.
The first is HB 1362 – the Foreclosure Fairness Act of 2011, which encourages banks and homeowners to work together and explore alternatives to foreclosure. This legislation will:
- Make a more robust “meet and confer” requirement.
- Fund more housing counselors to assist homeowners understand their options.
- Create a foreclosure mediation requirement to discuss all alternatives.
- Provide a consumer protection act remedy for institutions that fail to comply.
Perhaps you remember hearing about a lender in our state who managed to get away with scamming several people out of their homes. Desperate homeowners on the brink of losing their homes got loans from him at exorbitant interest rates and signed paperwork stating that if they couldn’t pay up, the lender could take their houses. Just like that.
He did it by writing up his loans as “commercial” instead of residential. Mortgages have interest-rate caps, consumer protections and full disclosure of all costs, while commercial loans do not. We passed a second HB 1405 that modifies the Consumer Loan Act so that lenders writing loans under the act for business, commercial, or agricultural purposes may not secure those loans with a lien on the borrower’s primary residence.
Victims of illegal lenders are often vulnerable and unaware of their rights. This measure also allows the Department of Financial Institutions to protect consumers who end up in the claws of these lending scammers.
As always, I hope you will share your thoughts and questions with me. It is an honor to serve you.
Regards,
Kristine