Local Nightmare Could Shift to National Level: According to the Associated Press, the Transition Team of President-Elect Obama has picked or is considering an array of Washington insiders and outsiders, including some Republicans, for Cabinet and other top positions, according to Democratic and transition officials.
Unfortunately, Dr. Rene Glover, CEO of Atlanta Housing Authority and Mayor of Atlanta, Shirley Franklin are on the short list for the position of HUD Secretary. The Task Force for the Homeless, along with many representatives of organizations serving and advocating for those living in poverty (both housed and un-housed), have expressed strong objections to either of the the considerations.
Messages to top advisors of Obama's Transition Team have been sent to alert those making these critically important decisions. We want it to be clear that though Dr. Glover has become nationally known for her creative approach to community redevelopment, the road to her successes have been paved with a lack of transparency, lies, broken promises, racial and economic discrimination, fraudulent claims and more.
Amenity rich, mixed income developments have been represented as an urban panacea and a monument to the expertise of Renee Glover. This transformation, however, comes at the expense of the poor families in the Atlanta area. Discrimination complaints have been filed against the housing authority in addition to documentation to support that the Housing Authority forged signatures, altered minutes of tenant meetings and then included in HUD applications, as well as, other blatant violations of the law and HUD regulations.
Atlanta Housing Authority Employees Come Forward: Whistle blowers that formerly worked for the Atlanta Housing Authority have come forward to substantiate claims that AHA evicted tenants for their inability to pay utilities while withholding utility allowance money that AHA received from HUD. This is only one of many violations that have come to light from former AHA employees.
Tenants and local advocates appealing for relief from unlawful and discriminatory practices of the Atlanta Housing found support from the City Council. City Council Members passed a bills seeking to ensure the City Council had to approve demolition applications sent to HUD and ask for the demolitions in three communities be postponed.
We have extensive documentation of these instances and many others. Legal battles are still in progress. Steps have been taken to determine where to send the extensive evidence that has been gathered to be sure that final decisions are not made without all of the information relative to this issue. We feel a sense of urgency in getting it to the right place these decisions are, of necessity, going to have to be made soon.
Mayor Franklin Complicit in Railroading Demolitions & Vetoing City Council Demands for Transparency & Responsibility: It has come to light that Mayor Shirley Franklin had signed off on five demolitions applications in 2007 without Council approval, consent, or awareness. HUD requires consultation with all relevant local government officials.
Mayor Franklin assisted AHA by vetoing the bills that demanded AHA accountability (though the veto was overridden by City Council) and hired high priced attorneys to fight any opposition to the joint campaign of the Mayors Office and AHA for the speedy demolitions of the remaining 3,000 units of Atlanta's Public Housing.
“We are suffering the largest shortage of low-income housing and her answer is to become the first city in the nation to destroy ALL public housing and replace it with "housing choice vouchers" and mixed-income developments.” Anita Beaty, our executive director, points out in her comments to a Washington Post article announcing the candidates for HUD Secretary.
“That sounds nice,” Ms. Beaty continued, “but when you consider that the mixed-income communities only house a small percentage of the residents of public housing it makes you wonder where are the residents going to go? Well, prior to demolition of the units, they clear the books by evicting 60-70 percent of the residents for all types of violations, some as petty as dirty dishes in the sink, and others have their partial rent payments returned and are evicted for non-payment. Then the remaining residents are promised "Housing Choice Vouchers" that will cover the remainder of your rent after the resident pays 30% of their income. Well these vouchers are only good for one year, and we have seen reports in the real estate market that this is a great way for landowners to survive until our famed "Beltline" is developed and land values skyrocket. This is going to create a large population of people experiencing homelessness. And as the Mayor has demonstrated her strategy of sweeping the homeless out into the suburbs, and into the overpopulated jails, it's a little like getting Dracula to guard the blood bank.”
MORE ARTICLES POSTED BELOW:
POLITICO:
PUBLIC INTEREST GROUPS SPECULATE HUD PICK
By: Victoria McGrane - December 8, 2008 05:38 PM EST
Public interest groups have long decried the neglected state of the Housing and Urban Development Department. Now, they’re anxiously awaiting President-elect Barack Obama’s choice for HUD secretary — and many aren’t that happy with some of the prospects.
During the campaign, Obama gave them reason to hope he’d elevate what has often been a second-tier agency to take a larger role in resolving the housing crisis. “I am committed to appointing a secretary, deputy and assistant secretaries who are committed to HUD’s mission and capable of executing it,” he told HUD employees in a letter to their union in October.
Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin and Atlanta Housing Authority Director Renee Glover have both received a fair amount of buzz as possible HUD secretaries.
But both are highly controversial figures in the public housing world.
Glover has led the housing authority to demolish numerous public housing complexes since 1994 to make room for mixed-use developments, with dozens more complexes slated for the wrecking ball.
Critics say her approach — fully supported by Franklin — has displaced residents to the poorest sections of Atlanta and may even violate the Fair Housing Act. A recent study released by Georgia State University warns that Glover’s plans to fully eradicate traditional public housing from the city could lead to homelessness.
“How can Obama appear to support poor people who are in the housing that Glover is demolishing so the developers can buy the land, and even consider her or Franklin, who planned with Glover the whole thing?” asked Anita Beaty, executive director of the Metro Atlanta Task Force for the Homeless.
Supporters of the mayor’s efforts say they have cleaned up dangerous and dilapidated neighborhoods, while displaced residents were given vouchers to rent elsewhere.
But Beaty and other critics say that the housing authority initiative has left the city with almost no affordable housing.
“Glover has privatized the most important asset we have in this city for poor people: public housing,” she said. She said Franklin has no housing policy, other than doing “the will of the developers and the downtown business community.”
Miami Mayor Manny Diaz is another oft-mentioned contender, but he’s also a divisive figure in the housing world and beyond. The Florida AFL-CIO and other activists are publicly objecting to Diaz getting a spot in the Obama administration, the Miami Herald reported last week.
To many, names such Diaz and Franklin sound too much like HUD secretaries of the recent past, when the position was seen as a political reward and a way to meet the “diversity” quota. The current financial crisis and the foreclosure tsunami that lies at the heart of it demand a HUD leader who has career experience in the field, housing and civil rights advocates say.
“It has become very political. It would be very good to have somebody who’s very hands on, who is not totally politically obligated to a whole bunch of folks prior to getting the job,” said John Taylor, president and CEO of the National Community Reinvestment Coalition, speaking generally about the top HUD post.
“It would be great to have a real practitioner who understands from an empirical observation how these things work and having that person at the highest level,” he said, so that the assistant secretaries and the managers below them have a leader who has a grasp of the department’s work, including affordable housing, homelessness and even lending issues.
Names in the mix that housing advocates have more faith in include Nicolas Retsinas, director of Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing Studies; Bart Harvey, former chief executive of Enterprise Community Investment; and Sister Lillian Murphy, CEO of Mercy Housing, a national nonprofit housing organization.
The Obama transition team has reached out to a wide variety of players in the housing community, industry and advocates alike, keeping an ongoing dialogue on policy, funding and management concerns.
The secretary choice is seen as vital to getting HUD back on track, advocates say.
In the recent past, the department has been sort of Cabinet stepchild, with its staff and resources cut and its mission muddled.
One of President George W. Bush’s HUD chiefs, Alphonso Jackson, a friend who followed him from Texas, had public housing experience but was widely seen by critics as a lackluster leader in Washington. He resigned in April amid multiple controversies.
“The role of HUD had been very much diminished — particularly over the period of the Bush administration,” said Julia Gordon, policy counsel for the Center of Responsible Lending. “HUD should be an agency that takes an absolutely lead role in urban policy and in housing policy nationally, beyond the individual little programs to do this affordable thing there, or this kind of product there. But ... whether it’s neglect or something worse, that role is not one that they’ve stepped into.”
Among its problems, public interest groups say HUD failed to exercise effective enforcement of fair housing and lending laws, and the predatory lending practices that went unchecked contributed to the foreclosure crisis.
Research by the Center for Responsible Lending, for instance, shows that African-American and Latino homeowners were often steered into subprime mortgages with hefty fees when their credit scores in fact qualified them for less expensive prime loans. Now those groups are experiencing some of the highest rates of foreclosure.
“We’re deeply troubled by failure of HUD to live up to statutory mandate, and this is a problem that has persisted now for many, many years,” said Wade Henderson, president and CEO of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, a leading member of the 220-member National Fair Housing Alliance.
“HUD is an agency with a mission whose focus has largely been lost over the last few years, and it’s really a tragedy.”
That’s a key finding of a six-month investigation into the state of fair housing in America, organized by the National Fair Housing Alliance, the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights Education Fund, the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law and the NAACP Legal Defense Fund and Educational Fund.
The commission, headed by former HUD secretaries Jack Kemp and Henry Cisneros, will release the study and recommendations for HUD’s future at a press conference Tuesday.
The need for major overhaul and mission refining is ever more urgent as the Federal Housing Administration, an agency within HUD that provides mortgage insurance for working-class home buyers, regains a significant share of the mortgage market. The subprime crash and government policies encouraging a greater role for FHA has led FHA’s market share — which has dipped as low as 2 percent of the market in recent years — to reach almost 20 percent, about where it was in its heyday.
The increase has strained FHA’s infrastructure to the breaking point. Moreover, there’s evidence that predatory practices are taking root among FHA lenders. A Nov. 19 BusinessWeek cover story highlighted the movement of predatory subprime lenders into the FHA loan origination business.
Housing advocates are calling for HUD to ban certain practices and cap the total fees that originators can charge on FHA-backed loans so FHA loans don’t become the locus of the next foreclosure crisis.
“It’s absolutely critical that these FHA loans are governed by appropriate standards to ensure that they’re sustainable and to curb, rather than perpetuate, the current problem,” Gordon said.
© 2008 Capitol News Company, LLC
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ADVOCATES OPPOSE GLOVER, FRANKLIN FOR HUD SECRETARY/BY MATTHEW CARDINALE,
THE ATLANTA PROGRESSIVE NEWS (December 04, 2008) News Editor
(APN) ATLANTA - Numerous advocates are scrambling to prevent President-Elect Barack Obama's Transition Team from nominating either Renee Glover, Director of Atlanta Housing Authority (AHA), or Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin, as the next Secretary of the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).
Both are part of a short list including a total of five names, according to the Associated Press. The other three candidates under consideration include Nicolas Retsinas, Director of Harvard's Joint Center for Housing Studies; Bart Harvey, former CEO of Enterprise Community Investment; and Miami Mayor Manny Diaz.
Glover received national attention for her controversial plan to demolish public housing in Atlanta around the time of the 1992 Olympics, including communities such as Techwood and East Lake Meadows.
Her mass eviction of residents, demolition of public housing, and replacement of the units with mixed-income housing, became a model for the HOPE VI program begun under the Clinton Administration, under which over 100,000 units were demolished nationwide.
Glover was reportedly considered a possible HUD pick for former Vice President Al Gore when he was the Democratic nominee in 2000.
Today, she is spearheading AHA's effort to demolish all remaining public housing in Atlanta.
Atlanta Progressive News has documented in over 60 news articles over a two year period numerous instances of fraud, fabrication, and secrecy by the Atlanta Housing Authority under Glover's leadership.
As previously reported by APN, AHA fraudulently claimed 96% of their residents would rather move than stay, even though residents were never given an option to stay and were simply asked whether they would like a voucher.
AHA fraudulently told their residents the funding for vouchers would continue in perpetuity, when in fact the funding must be approved each year by US Congress.
AHA fraudulently claimed the buildings were physically obsolete, when architectural reports show some of the buildings were structurally sound with minimal repair issues, but that they were not up to "market standards."
AHA fraudulently told the public and City Council's Community Development and Human Resources Committee that they never promised Council the opportunity to review any demolition applications sent, when that was specified in one of two resolutions by Councilwoman Felicia Moore demanding review, which incorporated promises made voluntarily by AHA.
As previously reported by APN, AHA has fabricated resident association meeting minutes, agenda, and sign-in sheets for the Resident Advisory Board and submitted these to HUD stating they were the organization's minutes, agenda, and sign-in sheets.
As previously reported by APN, AHA refused to allow the public to see the demolition applications and wanted to charge APN about $300 to review documents which HUD requires be made public for review.
AHA's Board of Commissioners essentially makes their decisions in private committee meetings. Their monthly public meetings consist of the Board voting on a consent agenda which has already been discussed and approved privately.
AHA has escorted advocate Terence Courtney out of Palmer House senior highrise, when residents invited him to their association meeting.
AHA interfered with independent researchers from Georgia State University as they interviewed 347 residents about their pre-relocation experiences.
AHA never answered the 82 questions posed by APN regarding their demolition applications.
AHA submitted demolition applications in 2007 and 2008 without showing them to residents or resident leaders, except in the case of those in Felicia Moore's district.
Mayor Shirley Franklin has supported Glover's efforts wholeheartedly.
When APN discovered that Franklin had been signing off on AHA's demolition applications without City Council knowledge in late 2007, Councilwoman Felicia Moore crafted a resolution and ordinance to demand Council input.
Franklin and Glover both dispatched teams of lawyers to argue that the City Council has no authority in the matter, despite the fact HUD invites comment from local elected officials and the City funds AHA redevelopment projects.
In the end, Moore passed two resolutions, overriding a Mayoral veto on one. Despite promises made in the second resolution, AHA never shared 4 demolition applications with CD/HR nor held the promised public hearings nor quarterly CD/HR presentations.
Franklin's and Glover's relations with City Council are important because they are a possible indication of how either of them would relate with US Congress.
"Though Dr. Glover has become nationally known for her creative approach to community redevelopment, the road to her successes is paved with a lack of transparency, lies, broken promises, racial and economic discrimination, fraudulent claims and more," Lynne Gee, of the Georgia Task Force for the Homeless, wrote in a letter to Valerie Jarrett of the Transition Team obtained by Atlanta Progressive News.
The Georgia Task Force is opposing the possible nominations of either Franklin or Glover.
"It's a little like getting Dracula to guard the blood bank," Anita Beaty, Executive Director of the Metro Atlanta Task Force for the Homeless, wrote in an online comment on the Washington Post website.
"It's absolutely outrageous to have someone who destroys public housing and displaces thousands of people even considered as HUD Secretary. It's absolutely appalling, it's unconscionable," Beaty said.
"Now, if they had a de-housing secretary," Glover's appointment might be appropriate, Beaty said.
"All she knows how to do is privatize public resources and gentrify public housing so it's there for upper income working people," Beaty said.
"Barack... really needs to understand... In my opinion, we'll be under siege," Diane Wright, President of the Resident Advisory Board for public housing resident leaders in Atlanta, said of a possible Glover nomination.
"To get rid of public housing knowing that people need it and to just throw people away, I really don't think she would make a good Secretary of HUD," Wright said.
"People matter," Wright said. "People don't matter to them."
"With what's going on in Atlanta, you mean to tell me, nobody ever took notice?" Wright said. "Nobody took notice that they don't even have enough housing in Atlanta for residents and she's closing down all the public housing?"
"That's sad. They shut down everything to the people. People's voices are not being heard. Secretary of HUD? All right, let's go ahead and we might as well bring in Hitler. I'm more serious than a heart attack," Wright said.
"If she becomes Secretary of HUD... what's the use of even having a HUD? They are gonna have very few public housing in some states, so they're gonna give everybody Section 8 that they don't evict. Man, how more homeless people are we gonna have?" Wright said.
"I remember when Renee [Glover] was trying to get rid of Atlanta Union Mission for men," Alan Harris of the Coalition for the Homeless and Mentally Ill said.
Harris criticizes Glover for "the tearing down of the highrises that have been remodeled... [and] were well-managed, decent housing... with the AJC [Atlanta Journal-Constitution newspaper] backing when there's a severe shortage of housing anyway."
AJC Editorial Writer "Cynthia Tucker falls over herself discussing Renee Glover's destruction of public housing," Harris said.
"I don't know what kind of director Shirley Franklin would make, she could be a good manager. I would certainly be opposed to Renee Glover," Harris said.
"I'm shocked he [Obama] would consider Renee Glover unless he opposes public housing," Harris said.
Harris did criticize Franklin, however, for spending "$24 million a year when we're not even making a dent in ending homelessness." Franklin created a 10 year plan to end homelessness, but homelessness has risen under Franklin, Harris said.
"Nobody could be worse than Renee Glover. Nobody could do more harm," Harris said.
"I'm quite familiar with Renee's work and I think that would be a huge mistake. She's no friend of affordable housing at all," former Professor Larry Keating of Georgia Tech, who has written a book about race, class, and urban renewal in Atlanta, told APN.
"Of course we've lost 60 years worth of accumulated housing here in Atlanta. I would think that [her nomination] would be tragic for the housing movement, for affordable housing," Keating said.
"During the Olympics, people were forced out of public housing without just compensation, and without due process. There was a substantial loss of public housing," Keating said.
"It wasn't about the housing being decrepit. They had an engineer who found that they were structurally and physically completely rehabable," Keating said.
"The renewal of the development was not driven by the physical condition of the buildings, it was driven by Barney Frank's phrase... they wanted a better class of poor people."
"The participatory requirements of the HOPE VI process, the interests and rights of the residents were trampled upon," Keating said.
One DC-based national affordable housing organization has been opposing the appointment of either Franklin or Miami Mayor Diaz in its meetings with the Transition Team, a source familiar with the matter told Atlanta Progressive News.
The group would have the same concerns about Glover but did not know she was currently under consideration, the source said.
Franklin told the Atlanta Business Chronicle she was not looking to serve in an Obama Administration and predicted she would serve out her Mayoral term.
Franklin told the Chronicle she thought Glover would make a better pick, something housing advocates dispute.
http://www.atlantaprogressivenews.com/news/0409.html
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Monday, November 24, 2008
Bush Signs Law Eextending Unemployment Insurance
Reuters / Friday, November 21, 2008; 9:23 AM
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President George W. Bush on Friday signed into law an extension of unemployment benefits, the White House said.
It gives seven more weeks of unemployment payments to workers who have exhausted their current jobless benefits. For those in states with the highest unemployment rates, an additional 20 weeks will be allowed.
On Thursday, the government reported the number of workers filing new claims for jobless benefits last week was at its highest level in 16 years and more than 4 million people were now receiving unemployment benefits.
(Reporting by Tabassum Zakaria, Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)
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BELOW ARE A FEW ARTICLES RE: GOVERNMENTAL OVERSIGHT FROM OUR ARCHIVES AS IT RELATES TO POVERTY AND HOMELESSNESS...
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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President George W. Bush on Friday signed into law an extension of unemployment benefits, the White House said.
It gives seven more weeks of unemployment payments to workers who have exhausted their current jobless benefits. For those in states with the highest unemployment rates, an additional 20 weeks will be allowed.
On Thursday, the government reported the number of workers filing new claims for jobless benefits last week was at its highest level in 16 years and more than 4 million people were now receiving unemployment benefits.
(Reporting by Tabassum Zakaria, Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)
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BELOW ARE A FEW ARTICLES RE: GOVERNMENTAL OVERSIGHT FROM OUR ARCHIVES AS IT RELATES TO POVERTY AND HOMELESSNESS...
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Monday, August 11, 2008
VETO THREAT ON FUNDING FOR LOW-INCOME HEATING ASSISTANCE IGNORES SERIOUS NEED
By Heather Long and Richard Kogan / August 11, 2008
The Senate recently considered a bill (S. 3186) to provide $2.5 billion in additional funding for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) to offset the sharp rise in energy prices this winter. President Bush, however, has threatened to veto the bill, arguing that the additional funding is not needed and that the bill would increase the deficit.
Data on rising energy prices sharply contradict the President’s claim that current LIHEAP funding is sufficient. Without additional funding, large numbers of low-income Americans will suffer extensive hardship this winter. As for the deficit, the White House’s inconsistency on this point is striking: the President complains that a $2.5 billion bill providing energy assistance to poor families will unacceptably enlarge the deficit, yet he opposes efforts in Congress to offset the cost of $64 billion in requested tax-cut extensions; instead, the $64 billion would be added to the deficit.
LIHEAP has bipartisan support from state governors and in Congress, where the recent Senate bill had 52 co-sponsors, including 13 Republicans. Congress and the President need to act on LIHEAP when they return in September.
Home Energy Costs Up 40 Percent This Coming Winter - LIHEAP currently helps 5.8 million poor households, including many elderly, pay their home heating and cooling bills and thereby avoid utility shut-offs. Generally LIHEAP pays only a portion of a household’s monthly heating bill; the household pays the rest. Partly because of funding limitations, LIHEAP assists fewer than one in six low-income households eligible for assistance.
LIHEAP assistance will prove especially critical this winter, given the recent explosion in home heating prices. For a typical LIHEAP recipient, home heating this winter will cost 40 percent more than last winter, 60 percent more than two winters ago, and 90 percent more than four winters ago. But without additional funding to compensate for this year’s increases in energy costs, state LIHEAP programs will have to make the difficult choice between serving fewer households (even though the number of households in need is rising), paying a smaller share of each recipient household’s home energy bill (even though those bills are much higher now), or some combination of the two.
Additional $2.2 Billion or More Needed to Prevent Increased Hardship - Congress has authorized $5.1 billion per year in LIHEAP funding but has never provided this full amount. The fiscal year 2008 funding level is $2.6 billion, a modest increase above the $2.2 billion provided in 2007. For fiscal year 2009, LIHEAP would need $3.4 billion in funding simply to provide the same number of low-income people with the same degree of assistance (measured as a share of their energy bills) as it did last year.
Moreover, even a funding level of $3.4 billion would not prevent substantial hardship. The added funding would suffice only to offset LIHEAP’s share of the 40 percent increase in home heating costs this winter; the household’s share would still rise by 40 percent. To cover both LIHEAP’s and the household’s share of the increase in energy prices so that poor LIHEAP households do not face unaffordable home energy bills this winter, LIHEAP would need $4.8 billion for fiscal year 2009, an increase of $2.2 billion over the 2008 level.
To give an example, the typical poor LIHEAP household was billed about $1,100 for home energy last season, according to the National Energy Assistance Directors’ Association. Of that amount, LIHEAP paid an average of 37 percent ($407), while the household paid the rest ($693). A 40 percent ($440) increase in home energy costs this winter would bring the household’s total bill to $1,540. If LIHEAP’s payment increased by 40 percent to $570, the household’s payment would also have to increase by 40 percent, to $970.
Given their poverty, many households could have difficulty paying these higher costs. To keep the household’s home energy costs from rising, the LIHEAP payment would need to cover the full $440 increase in the home heating bill, by increasing from $407 to $847.
It also should be noted that even at a $4.8 billion funding level, LIHEAP would serve a smaller share of the population needing home heating assistance than it did last year. One reason is that the number of low-income households is rising as the economy weakens and jobs disappear. (The U.S. economy has shed more than 400,000 jobs so far this year.) Another reason is that some low-income families who were able to pay their home energy bills in past winters will not be able to do so this winter because of the rise in energy prices.
The White House’s Flawed Arguments Against Additional Funding - In arguing that LIHEAP does not need additional funding this fiscal year, the President has noted that the program still has $100 million remaining in contingency funds for the year. But this amount is well short of the additional $2.2 billion or more we estimate is needed to prevent increased hardship this winter.
The President has also objected to more LIHEAP funding on the grounds that it would add to the deficit. Yet the President recently signed into law $115 billion in supplemental funding for the Iraq war and other emergency needs, and he continues to request another round of Alternative Minimum Tax relief costing at least $64 billion while insisting that those costs not be offset. Both of these requests add much more to the deficit than the needed LIHEAP increase.
Moreover, additional LIHEAP funding can easily fit within Congress’s current budget resolution, which set aside $5.0 billion for additional needs in 2008.
Congress Needs to Act in September to Ensure Adequate Help This Winter - Congress is on course to enact a continuing resolution in September that will fund appropriated programs through February or March, generally at last year’s funding levels. Freezing LIHEAP funding through most of the winter — as a continuing resolution would normally do — would impose serious hardship on millions of vulnerable families.
Congress consequently needs to act this fall to provide sufficient LIHEAP funding to protect low-income households from steep increases in home energy costs this winter. It could do so either by enacting separate legislation (such as the recent Senate bill) or by increasing the LIHEAP funding portion of the continuing resolution well above a “freeze level.”
End Notes:
[1] These figures are based on Department of Energy historical data and its recent projections of energy prices, as well as the typical home energy needs of LIHEAP recipients.
[2] This $4.8 billion figure assumes that only four-fifths of LIHEAP funding will cover home energy payments. The remaining one-fifth covers administrative costs and weatherization. Price increases in these latter areas may be about 3 percent this year, in line with non-energy inflation.
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Urgent Alert Regarding Farm Bill (H.R. 2419)
URGENT ALERT FROM THE COALITION ON HUMAN NEEDS:
From Our Friends at FRAC (Food Research and Action Center)
We urge your organization to sign onto a national, state, and local organization letter in support of a House (and Senate) effort to override the presidential veto of the Farm Bill (H.R. 2419), scheduled for as early as this week. Key improvements in the nutrition title include enhancing food stamp benefits, food stamp access, and emergency food purchases.
Even though the House and Senate votes reflect a comfortable, veto-proof majority, efforts to override a presidential veto can be very complicated. Therefore, it becomes necessary to re-double our efforts to work this override. We urge you to forward this alert to your local and state networks so we can send a united and strong message to Congress.
The earliest the veto override could occur is Wednesday, May 21st which would require the letter be sent to Congress as early as Tuesday, May 20th. Given this time line, we are asking for signatures by COB, Monday, May 19th.
Please enter the information required, including your organization's name as you would like it to appear on the letter. If you have any questions, please contact Ellen Vollinger, evollinger@frac.org, Ellen Teller, eteller@frac.org, or Etienne Melcher, emelcher@frac.org.
Click here to sign the letter.
If you have problems with the link, go to:
http://org2.democracyinaction.org/o/5118/t/1472/petition.jsp?petition_KEY=61
From Our Friends at FRAC (Food Research and Action Center)
We urge your organization to sign onto a national, state, and local organization letter in support of a House (and Senate) effort to override the presidential veto of the Farm Bill (H.R. 2419), scheduled for as early as this week. Key improvements in the nutrition title include enhancing food stamp benefits, food stamp access, and emergency food purchases.
Even though the House and Senate votes reflect a comfortable, veto-proof majority, efforts to override a presidential veto can be very complicated. Therefore, it becomes necessary to re-double our efforts to work this override. We urge you to forward this alert to your local and state networks so we can send a united and strong message to Congress.
The earliest the veto override could occur is Wednesday, May 21st which would require the letter be sent to Congress as early as Tuesday, May 20th. Given this time line, we are asking for signatures by COB, Monday, May 19th.
Please enter the information required, including your organization's name as you would like it to appear on the letter. If you have any questions, please contact Ellen Vollinger, evollinger@frac.org, Ellen Teller, eteller@frac.org, or Etienne Melcher, emelcher@frac.org.
Click here to sign the letter.
If you have problems with the link, go to:
http://org2.democracyinaction.org/o/5118/t/1472/petition.jsp?petition_KEY=61
Congress Should Send the President Legislation to Extend Jobless Benefits
From the Coalition on Human Needs:
The unemployment rate rose to 5.5 percent in May, up from 5.0 percent just a month before. According to the Wall Street Journal, that's the largest one-month increase in the past 22 years. Over the past six months, private sector jobs have dropped by 411,000, according to the Economic Policy Institute.
It's time for the federal government to respond. There were 861,000 more unemployed people last month, bringing the total to 8.5 million. But it's worse than that: 1.6 million people have been out of work for 27 weeks or more, up from 1.1 million a year ago.
The National Employment Law Project tells us there are 200,000 more long-term unemployed now than when Congress last passed extended benefits (March 2002). These long-term jobless workers have exhausted their state unemployment insurance - and there are fewer jobs now than when they started looking. Both the House and Senate have voted to provide at least a 13-week extension of unemployment benefits, and to attach that badly needed help to the war funding bill now before Congress.
Other priorities that have gotten strong votes in the House and/or Senate include improved education benefits for veterans, and delaying harmful Bush Administration regulations that would cut Medicaid funds for case management, transportation, and medical services for children in foster care or with disabilities, or for other poor sick people seeking outpatient care in hospitals. (For more information, see the Human Needs Report.)
The President has threatened to veto all these - help for the jobless, for veterans, and for vulnerable people needing Medicaid services. Rumors have been flying all week that the House leadership might abandon its commitment to help workers desperate for jobs and young and old alike in need of Medicaid services, sending the President a stripped-down bill to fund the war and veterans' education benefits.
There is no question that the growing numbers of veterans deserve education help. Jobless, vulnerable, and sick people need help, too. Economists understand that extending jobless benefits is one of the most effective ways to boost the economy.
We hope that the House will not walk away from championing the jobless, sick, and disabled.
We hope they will agree with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who said his support for the supplemental spending bill is contingent on inclusion of the unemployment insurance extension.
We do not know if Congress will have enough votes to override a veto, and we agree with Representatives Rangel, Levin, and McDermott, who sent the President a letter today calling on him to sign such a bill. But if the House does not even send these provisions to the President, they will bear a heavy part of the responsibility for the failure to meet these increasingly urgent needs.
We expect - and need - more from our leaders. Next week, we hope to write that we have not been disappointed. Deborah Weinstein Executive Director Coalition on Human Needs
Monday, May 19, 2008
Urge Senators to Keep GSE Funding for the Housing Trust Fund
URGENT CALL TO ACTION FROM NATIONAL LOW INCOME HOUSING COALITION!
[This is the action we discussed in the Coalition Forum on Thursday!]
Call Now Before Tuesday’s Markup. The fight to protect resources for an affordable housing trust fund will continue next Tuesday, May 20, in the Senate Banking Committee. After yet another delay in the markup of Senator Dodd's major housing bill, we still have time to convince the Committee leadership to abandon their efforts to siphon Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac money from the Housing Trust Fund. Reports indicate that a "deal" between Banking Committee Democrats and Republicans would give away GSE resources for the Housing Trust Fund to pay for the potential costs of the proposed new FHA foreclosure prevention program.
We must stand firm and make our voices heard in order to keep the GSE funds dedicated to the Housing Trust Fund.
ACTION NEEDED NOW:
IF YOUR SENATOR IS ON THE BANKING COMMITTEE
Urge your senator to keep the GSE funding for a Housing Trust Fund as outlined in Reed Amendment #3, and NOT to use it to pay for the new FHA program.
Click here for members of the Senate Banking Committee and their phone numbers.
IF YOUR SENATORS ARE NOT ON THE BANKING COMMITTEE
Urge your senators to contact Banking Chair Dodd and Ranking Member Shelby, asking them to keep the GSE funding for a Housing Trust Fund as outlined in Reed Amendment #3, and NOT divert the funds to the new FHA program.
Click the blue "Take Action" button above for the names and numbers of your senators.
The Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee will consider Chairman Christopher Dodd's bill, "The Federal Housing Finance Regulatory Reform Act of 2008" this Tuesday, May 20, at 10:00am EDT.
Thank you again for all of your support and dedication during this protracted campaign to establish an affordable housing trust fund.
PS: Please email us at outreach@nlihc.org, or call us at 202.662.1530, to report the results of your calls. Any information we can gather from you could be very valuable as the bill moves forward.
Background:
At a time when the federal government can guarantee a $30 billion bail-out of Bear Sterns and pay for a $25 billion bail-out of the home builders, it is incomprehensible that Congress would take away money intended to help low income people -- all in the name of protecting the taxpayers from the potential $1.7 billion risk in the new FHA program.
On May 13, Senator Jack Reed (D-RI) offered an amendment to the larger Dodd housing bill that was accepted in the manager's package. The "Reed Amendment #3" will: Create a Housing Trust Fund with funding from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Target 75% of the funds to benefit extremely low income people. Enable the Housing Trust Fund to accept other funds that Congress designates in the future. The Reed Housing Trust Fund amendment will make it possible to achieve the major objectives of the National Housing Trust Fund Campaign in the context of this major housing bill.
The Senate Banking Committee began considering the bill on May 15 and should finish marking up the bill on May 20. The time to act is now.
Tuesday, May 6, 2008
Capitol Hill - Wrap Up of Legislation in First Session of 110th Congress
Congress to Return to Full AgendaTo kick off the New Year, we have rounded up the major housing policy issues we expect Congress to work on in 2008, the second session of the 110th Congress. While progress was made in 2007, there is much unfinished business for 2008. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Chair Christopher Dodd (D-CT) formally dropped out of the presidential race on January 4. The pace of that committee’s work is now expected to increase.
The House and Senate will return for legislative business on January 15 and 22, respectively. The president will deliver his state of the union address on January 28. On February 4, the president will deliver his FY09 budget requests to Congress, which will mark the official start of FY09 budget and appropriations season.
National Housing Trust FundThe National Housing Trust Fund made great progress in the first session of the 110th Congress. On October 10, under the leadership of House Committee on Financial Services Chair Barney Frank (D-MA), the National Affordable Housing Trust Fund Act of 2007, H.R. 2895, passed the House with strong bipartisan support (see Memo, 10/12/07). On December 19, Senators John Kerry (D-MA) and Olympia Snowe (R-ME) were the lead sponsors along with six other Senators in introducing bipartisan legislation to establish a housing trust fund in the Senate (see Memo, 12/21/07). The Senate bill, S. 2523, is very similar to the House version and has been referred to the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs. In 2008, the National Housing Trust Fund Campaign will work to get additional cosponsors and line up votes to have the trust fund bill passed in the Senate.
Both the House and Senate bills would establish dedicated sources of funds for the production, preservation and rehabilitation of 1.5 million affordable homes over the next 10 years. At least 75% of the funds will be for housing for households that are extremely low income, earning less than 30% of the area’s median income.
There are two sets of current legislation that have seen action in the first session of the 110th Congress that establish funding sources for the trust fund. First, the House passed H.R. 1427 (see Memo, 5/25/07) a comprehensive reform bill for the government sponsored enterprises (GSEs), Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, that also calls for providing dedicated funds from the GSEs to the trust fund. In the Senate, Senator Jack Reed (R-RI) has introduced S. 2391, the GSE Mission Improvement Act of 2007 (see Memo, 11/30/07) that includes funds from the GSEs to support an affordable housing fund. This measure has been referred to the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs. GSE reform legislation (S. 1100) introduced by Senator Chuck Hagel (R-NE) on April 12, 2007, does not contain the affordable housing fund provision. Comprehensive GSE reform is expected to be taken up by the Senate Banking Committee sometime this year.
A second source of revenue for a trust fund is included in House-passed legislation to modernize the Federal Housing Administration (FHA), H.R. 1852 (see Memo, 9/21/07). The bill creates new FHA revenue by expanding the home equity conversion mortgage (HECM) program and dedicating some of this new revenue to a Trust Fund. The Senate has passed a similar modernization measure for the FHA, S. 2338, but it does not include the funding provision (see Memo, 12/14/07). The two measures now must go to a House-Senate conference committee where differences in the bills will be reconciled. The National Housing Trust Fund Campaign will work to see that the FHA provision providing funding for the Trust Fund remains in the final legislation.
Budget and AppropriationsPresident George W. Bush signed the FY08 omnibus spending bill, which includes funding for HUD, on December 26. The House and Senate had passed three continuing resolutions to keep government spending flowing in FY08 after the October 1, 2007, start of the fiscal year came and went.
With 2008 an election year, the process for enacting FY09 spending bills could be even more partisan. On February 4, the president will deliver his FY09 budget request to Congress, which will mark the official start of FY09 budget and appropriations work. The House and Senate Budget Committees will work to enact an FY09 budget resolution by April 15 and then use the spending levels and directives in that document to guide the work of the appropriations committees and subcommittees.
Advocates’ work in this area will begin with seeking a higher domestic discretionary spending limit, compared to FY08, in the FY09 budget resolution. Such an increase would enable the House and Senate Appropriations Committees to allot additional funds, compared to FY08, to their subcommittees, including the Transportation, HUD and Related Agencies Subcommittees. Of course, keeping any gains made by a better budget resolution will be possible only with enough votes to push back against any cuts or requests for level funding proposed by the president’s budget, a task that proved impossible for the FY08 appropriations.
Public HousingThe biggest challenge facing public housing in 2008 will be sufficient funding to operate and maintain existing public housing units. Funding for both functions in recent years has lagged well behind need. Today’s public housing authorities are operating on only 85.4% of what HUD knows they need to operate, according to the November 14 paper by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, and their more than $20 billion backlog of capital needs is widely known.
Legislation to reauthorize the HOPE VI program is likely to receive additional attention in 2008. The House is expected to take up its HOPE VI reauthorization bill, H.R. 3524, the week of January 14. The bill, introduced by House Financial Services Subcommittee on Housing and Community Opportunity Chair Maxine Waters (D-CA), passed out of committee on September 26 (see Memo, 9/14/07 and 9/28/07). The Senate bill, introduced on March 6 by Senator Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) received a hearing in the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee on June 20 but no further action has been taken on the legislation (see Memo, 3/9/07 and 6/22/07). The bills are very different from one another. The House bill requires one-for-one replacement of units, a right to return by former residents and many other protections and improvements long sought by advocates. The Senate bill does not contain any of these improvements and reverses some of the gains won when the program was last reauthorized in 2003 under legislation sponsored by Representative Mel Watt (D-NC).
Section 8 Housing Choice VouchersAdequate funding to renew all vouchers and to fund vouchers that are currently authorized but unused will continue to be critical issues for the FY08 HUD appropriations bill. Advocates will also continue to ask for new vouchers in FY09. The approximately 20,000 vouchers funded in the FY08 HUD appropriations bill for homeless veterans, non-elderly disabled people and the family unification program were the first new vouchers funded since FY02. In FY09, advocates will continue to seek 100,000 additional new vouchers.
The Section 8 Voucher Reform Act will be a focal point for advocacy in 2008. The House bill, H.R. 1851, includes a long list of important and positive reforms to the voucher program, and advocates will work hard in 2008 to enact this legislation. H.R. 1851 passed the House on July 12 (see Memo, 7/13/07), but the Senate bill has yet to be introduced. A draft Senate bill was circulating in the Fall of 2007 and introduction is expected shortly after January 22, when the Senate returns to work.
H.R. 1851 addresses the distribution of voucher funds to administering agencies, simplification of rents, voucher portability, replacement vouchers for lost project-based assistance, project-based vouchers, fair market rents, rent burdens, inspections, the moving to work/housing innovation program and the family self-sufficiency program, among other voucher issues. The bill also authorizes 20,000 new, incremental vouchers each year for FY08 – FY12.
Project-Based Housing PreservationWhile Congress considered some legislation to preserve existing affordable housing in the first session of the 110th Congress, the main thrust of preservation legislation will occur in the second session. On October 31, the House Committee on Financial Services, chaired by Representative Barney Frank (D-MA), passed H.R. 3965, the Mark-to-Market Extension and Enhancement Act of 2007 (see Memo, 11/2/07). This legislation would amend the Mark-to-Market program to include properties with below-market rents and to expand the number of instances of nonprofit debt relief, among other changes. The Congressional Budget Office concluded, in a report dated November 30, 2007, that these expansions of the program would have a direct spending cost, potentially triggering a rule of the House of Representatives that would prohibit consideration of the bill without offsetting revenue increases.
In addition, on October 31, the Committee approved H.R. 3873, the Section 515 Rural Housing Property Transfer Improvement Act of 2007, by voice vote. The bill is intended to expedite the transfer of Section 515 rural multifamily housing projects from one owner to another. The Senate did not take up any preservation legislation in the first session.
Chair Frank is expected to introduce a major preservation bill in February, and he has committed to moving this legislation though the Financial Services Committee early in the second session. This legislation is likely to include many of the provisions sought by advocates and the Preservation Working Group. In addition, the non-cost provisions of H.R. 3965 may be included. Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY), chair of the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Subcommittee on Housing, Transportation and Community Development, is also expected to introduce preservation legislation.
Low Income Housing Tax CreditWhile no legislation has been formally introduced as yet, House Committee on Ways and Means Chair Charles Rangel (D-NY) is looking at ways to improve the Low Income Housing Tax Credit program (LIHTC). And, House Committee on Financial Services Chair Barney Frank (D-MA) is working on ways to better coordinate the HUD programs with the LIHTC program. Legislation developed by both members will be part of a larger tax reform measure that Mr. Rangel plans to consider in the second session of this Congress.
NLIHC is working to promote deeper income targeting for the LIHTC program as well as a better distribution of the credits in order to house more extremely low income families.
In other LIHTC news, the House rejected attempts to include a provision to exclude military service members’ basic allowance for housing from their calculation of income for purposes of determining eligibility for the low income housing tax credit program, in its legislation providing military service members additional tax benefits (see Memo, 11/2/07). The Senate amended its version of this bill on December 19 to include this provision. NLIHC opposes this action as it would take units away from low income civilians and the responsibility for housing for active military people lies with the Department of Defense.
McKinney-Vento Reauthorization Bills have been introduced in both the House and Senate to reauthorize McKinney-Vento homeless programs. The bills would consolidate all HUD McKinney-Vento housing programs, except Emergency Shelter Grants, into one competitive program with a broad set of eligible activities, including homelessness prevention, permanent or transitional housing for any homeless population, and supportive services.
On February 6, Representatives Julia Carson (D-IN), Geoff Davis (R-KY), Barbara Lee (D-CA) and Rick Renzi (R-AZ) introduced H.R. 840, the Homeless Emergency Assistance and Rapid Transition to Housing Act (HEARTH) (see Memo, 2/9/07). Ms. Carson passed away on December 15, and Representative Maxine Waters (D-CA) is expected to carry McKinney-Vento legislation through the committee.
Ms. Waters, chair of the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Housing and Community Development, held two hearings on the bill in October, 2007 (see Memo, 10/12/07 and 10/19/07). S.1518, the Community Partnership to End Homelessness Act of 2007, was introduced by Senators Jack Reed (D-RI) and Wayne Allard (R-CO) on May 24 (see Memo, 5/18/07 and 5/24/07). The Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs voted in favor of S. 1518 on September 19 (see Memo, 9/21/07).
Each bill would expand the definition of homelessness, to different degrees. In S.1518, households would be considered homeless for the purposes of receiving services if they: are living in somebody else’s housing because they do not have the resources to obtain other housing; have been notified that the arrangement is short-term; have moved either three times in the past year or twice in the past three weeks; and are not contributing significantly to the cost of the housing. The definition would also include people who have moved frequently (three times in the past year or twice in the past 21 days) and are currently living in a hotel or motel in which they will not be able to stay for more than a brief period. The definition of homelessness in H.R. 840 would be more closely aligned with the definition used by other federal agencies by including people who are living in doubled-up situations or in hotels/motels due to lack of adequate alternatives.
A Senate floor vote on S. 1528 is as yet unscheduled. The House Financial Services Subcommittee on Housing and Community Opportunity is expected to mark up a manager’s amendment of H.R. 840 in the spring.
Disaster RecoveryS.1668, the Gulf Coast Housing Recovery Act of 2007, remains stalled in the Senate due to opposition by Senator David Vitter (R-LA). The bill, introduced by Senators Mary Landrieu (D-LA) and Christopher Dodd (D-CT) on June 20 (see Memo, 6/22/07), would, among other things, require that any redevelopment of public housing owned by the Housing Authority of New Orleans (HANO) or any Gulf Coast public housing agency (PHA) include one-for-one replacement and a right to return for all displaced tenants. Companion legislation, H.R. 1227, passed the House on March 21 (see Memo, 3/23/07). Advocates continue to push for S.1668 to be voted on the Senate Banking Committee. In the meantime, Senator Landrieu may soon introduce new legislation related to New Orleans public housing that would better reflect the negotiations and compromises made thus far on S.1668.
Another supplemental spending bill for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan will be taken up by Congress in late winter. As with past supplemental spending bills, this will be an opportunity for additional funds to be allocated to Gulf Coast housing recovery.
Legislation to revise the Stafford Act, particularly the way the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) responds to temporary and long term housing needs after a disaster, will be introduced by Senator Landrieu in late winter or early spring.
The House and Senate will return for legislative business on January 15 and 22, respectively. The president will deliver his state of the union address on January 28. On February 4, the president will deliver his FY09 budget requests to Congress, which will mark the official start of FY09 budget and appropriations season.
National Housing Trust FundThe National Housing Trust Fund made great progress in the first session of the 110th Congress. On October 10, under the leadership of House Committee on Financial Services Chair Barney Frank (D-MA), the National Affordable Housing Trust Fund Act of 2007, H.R. 2895, passed the House with strong bipartisan support (see Memo, 10/12/07). On December 19, Senators John Kerry (D-MA) and Olympia Snowe (R-ME) were the lead sponsors along with six other Senators in introducing bipartisan legislation to establish a housing trust fund in the Senate (see Memo, 12/21/07). The Senate bill, S. 2523, is very similar to the House version and has been referred to the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs. In 2008, the National Housing Trust Fund Campaign will work to get additional cosponsors and line up votes to have the trust fund bill passed in the Senate.
Both the House and Senate bills would establish dedicated sources of funds for the production, preservation and rehabilitation of 1.5 million affordable homes over the next 10 years. At least 75% of the funds will be for housing for households that are extremely low income, earning less than 30% of the area’s median income.
There are two sets of current legislation that have seen action in the first session of the 110th Congress that establish funding sources for the trust fund. First, the House passed H.R. 1427 (see Memo, 5/25/07) a comprehensive reform bill for the government sponsored enterprises (GSEs), Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, that also calls for providing dedicated funds from the GSEs to the trust fund. In the Senate, Senator Jack Reed (R-RI) has introduced S. 2391, the GSE Mission Improvement Act of 2007 (see Memo, 11/30/07) that includes funds from the GSEs to support an affordable housing fund. This measure has been referred to the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs. GSE reform legislation (S. 1100) introduced by Senator Chuck Hagel (R-NE) on April 12, 2007, does not contain the affordable housing fund provision. Comprehensive GSE reform is expected to be taken up by the Senate Banking Committee sometime this year.
A second source of revenue for a trust fund is included in House-passed legislation to modernize the Federal Housing Administration (FHA), H.R. 1852 (see Memo, 9/21/07). The bill creates new FHA revenue by expanding the home equity conversion mortgage (HECM) program and dedicating some of this new revenue to a Trust Fund. The Senate has passed a similar modernization measure for the FHA, S. 2338, but it does not include the funding provision (see Memo, 12/14/07). The two measures now must go to a House-Senate conference committee where differences in the bills will be reconciled. The National Housing Trust Fund Campaign will work to see that the FHA provision providing funding for the Trust Fund remains in the final legislation.
Budget and AppropriationsPresident George W. Bush signed the FY08 omnibus spending bill, which includes funding for HUD, on December 26. The House and Senate had passed three continuing resolutions to keep government spending flowing in FY08 after the October 1, 2007, start of the fiscal year came and went.
With 2008 an election year, the process for enacting FY09 spending bills could be even more partisan. On February 4, the president will deliver his FY09 budget request to Congress, which will mark the official start of FY09 budget and appropriations work. The House and Senate Budget Committees will work to enact an FY09 budget resolution by April 15 and then use the spending levels and directives in that document to guide the work of the appropriations committees and subcommittees.
Advocates’ work in this area will begin with seeking a higher domestic discretionary spending limit, compared to FY08, in the FY09 budget resolution. Such an increase would enable the House and Senate Appropriations Committees to allot additional funds, compared to FY08, to their subcommittees, including the Transportation, HUD and Related Agencies Subcommittees. Of course, keeping any gains made by a better budget resolution will be possible only with enough votes to push back against any cuts or requests for level funding proposed by the president’s budget, a task that proved impossible for the FY08 appropriations.
Public HousingThe biggest challenge facing public housing in 2008 will be sufficient funding to operate and maintain existing public housing units. Funding for both functions in recent years has lagged well behind need. Today’s public housing authorities are operating on only 85.4% of what HUD knows they need to operate, according to the November 14 paper by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, and their more than $20 billion backlog of capital needs is widely known.
Legislation to reauthorize the HOPE VI program is likely to receive additional attention in 2008. The House is expected to take up its HOPE VI reauthorization bill, H.R. 3524, the week of January 14. The bill, introduced by House Financial Services Subcommittee on Housing and Community Opportunity Chair Maxine Waters (D-CA), passed out of committee on September 26 (see Memo, 9/14/07 and 9/28/07). The Senate bill, introduced on March 6 by Senator Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) received a hearing in the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee on June 20 but no further action has been taken on the legislation (see Memo, 3/9/07 and 6/22/07). The bills are very different from one another. The House bill requires one-for-one replacement of units, a right to return by former residents and many other protections and improvements long sought by advocates. The Senate bill does not contain any of these improvements and reverses some of the gains won when the program was last reauthorized in 2003 under legislation sponsored by Representative Mel Watt (D-NC).
Section 8 Housing Choice VouchersAdequate funding to renew all vouchers and to fund vouchers that are currently authorized but unused will continue to be critical issues for the FY08 HUD appropriations bill. Advocates will also continue to ask for new vouchers in FY09. The approximately 20,000 vouchers funded in the FY08 HUD appropriations bill for homeless veterans, non-elderly disabled people and the family unification program were the first new vouchers funded since FY02. In FY09, advocates will continue to seek 100,000 additional new vouchers.
The Section 8 Voucher Reform Act will be a focal point for advocacy in 2008. The House bill, H.R. 1851, includes a long list of important and positive reforms to the voucher program, and advocates will work hard in 2008 to enact this legislation. H.R. 1851 passed the House on July 12 (see Memo, 7/13/07), but the Senate bill has yet to be introduced. A draft Senate bill was circulating in the Fall of 2007 and introduction is expected shortly after January 22, when the Senate returns to work.
H.R. 1851 addresses the distribution of voucher funds to administering agencies, simplification of rents, voucher portability, replacement vouchers for lost project-based assistance, project-based vouchers, fair market rents, rent burdens, inspections, the moving to work/housing innovation program and the family self-sufficiency program, among other voucher issues. The bill also authorizes 20,000 new, incremental vouchers each year for FY08 – FY12.
Project-Based Housing PreservationWhile Congress considered some legislation to preserve existing affordable housing in the first session of the 110th Congress, the main thrust of preservation legislation will occur in the second session. On October 31, the House Committee on Financial Services, chaired by Representative Barney Frank (D-MA), passed H.R. 3965, the Mark-to-Market Extension and Enhancement Act of 2007 (see Memo, 11/2/07). This legislation would amend the Mark-to-Market program to include properties with below-market rents and to expand the number of instances of nonprofit debt relief, among other changes. The Congressional Budget Office concluded, in a report dated November 30, 2007, that these expansions of the program would have a direct spending cost, potentially triggering a rule of the House of Representatives that would prohibit consideration of the bill without offsetting revenue increases.
In addition, on October 31, the Committee approved H.R. 3873, the Section 515 Rural Housing Property Transfer Improvement Act of 2007, by voice vote. The bill is intended to expedite the transfer of Section 515 rural multifamily housing projects from one owner to another. The Senate did not take up any preservation legislation in the first session.
Chair Frank is expected to introduce a major preservation bill in February, and he has committed to moving this legislation though the Financial Services Committee early in the second session. This legislation is likely to include many of the provisions sought by advocates and the Preservation Working Group. In addition, the non-cost provisions of H.R. 3965 may be included. Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY), chair of the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Subcommittee on Housing, Transportation and Community Development, is also expected to introduce preservation legislation.
Low Income Housing Tax CreditWhile no legislation has been formally introduced as yet, House Committee on Ways and Means Chair Charles Rangel (D-NY) is looking at ways to improve the Low Income Housing Tax Credit program (LIHTC). And, House Committee on Financial Services Chair Barney Frank (D-MA) is working on ways to better coordinate the HUD programs with the LIHTC program. Legislation developed by both members will be part of a larger tax reform measure that Mr. Rangel plans to consider in the second session of this Congress.
NLIHC is working to promote deeper income targeting for the LIHTC program as well as a better distribution of the credits in order to house more extremely low income families.
In other LIHTC news, the House rejected attempts to include a provision to exclude military service members’ basic allowance for housing from their calculation of income for purposes of determining eligibility for the low income housing tax credit program, in its legislation providing military service members additional tax benefits (see Memo, 11/2/07). The Senate amended its version of this bill on December 19 to include this provision. NLIHC opposes this action as it would take units away from low income civilians and the responsibility for housing for active military people lies with the Department of Defense.
McKinney-Vento Reauthorization Bills have been introduced in both the House and Senate to reauthorize McKinney-Vento homeless programs. The bills would consolidate all HUD McKinney-Vento housing programs, except Emergency Shelter Grants, into one competitive program with a broad set of eligible activities, including homelessness prevention, permanent or transitional housing for any homeless population, and supportive services.
On February 6, Representatives Julia Carson (D-IN), Geoff Davis (R-KY), Barbara Lee (D-CA) and Rick Renzi (R-AZ) introduced H.R. 840, the Homeless Emergency Assistance and Rapid Transition to Housing Act (HEARTH) (see Memo, 2/9/07). Ms. Carson passed away on December 15, and Representative Maxine Waters (D-CA) is expected to carry McKinney-Vento legislation through the committee.
Ms. Waters, chair of the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Housing and Community Development, held two hearings on the bill in October, 2007 (see Memo, 10/12/07 and 10/19/07). S.1518, the Community Partnership to End Homelessness Act of 2007, was introduced by Senators Jack Reed (D-RI) and Wayne Allard (R-CO) on May 24 (see Memo, 5/18/07 and 5/24/07). The Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs voted in favor of S. 1518 on September 19 (see Memo, 9/21/07).
Each bill would expand the definition of homelessness, to different degrees. In S.1518, households would be considered homeless for the purposes of receiving services if they: are living in somebody else’s housing because they do not have the resources to obtain other housing; have been notified that the arrangement is short-term; have moved either three times in the past year or twice in the past three weeks; and are not contributing significantly to the cost of the housing. The definition would also include people who have moved frequently (three times in the past year or twice in the past 21 days) and are currently living in a hotel or motel in which they will not be able to stay for more than a brief period. The definition of homelessness in H.R. 840 would be more closely aligned with the definition used by other federal agencies by including people who are living in doubled-up situations or in hotels/motels due to lack of adequate alternatives.
A Senate floor vote on S. 1528 is as yet unscheduled. The House Financial Services Subcommittee on Housing and Community Opportunity is expected to mark up a manager’s amendment of H.R. 840 in the spring.
Disaster RecoveryS.1668, the Gulf Coast Housing Recovery Act of 2007, remains stalled in the Senate due to opposition by Senator David Vitter (R-LA). The bill, introduced by Senators Mary Landrieu (D-LA) and Christopher Dodd (D-CT) on June 20 (see Memo, 6/22/07), would, among other things, require that any redevelopment of public housing owned by the Housing Authority of New Orleans (HANO) or any Gulf Coast public housing agency (PHA) include one-for-one replacement and a right to return for all displaced tenants. Companion legislation, H.R. 1227, passed the House on March 21 (see Memo, 3/23/07). Advocates continue to push for S.1668 to be voted on the Senate Banking Committee. In the meantime, Senator Landrieu may soon introduce new legislation related to New Orleans public housing that would better reflect the negotiations and compromises made thus far on S.1668.
Another supplemental spending bill for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan will be taken up by Congress in late winter. As with past supplemental spending bills, this will be an opportunity for additional funds to be allocated to Gulf Coast housing recovery.
Legislation to revise the Stafford Act, particularly the way the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) responds to temporary and long term housing needs after a disaster, will be introduced by Senator Landrieu in late winter or early spring.
Off to Rough & Tumble Start: Senate Shields Vetoes from 12 House Salvos
By James Salzer, Ben Smith - The Atlanta Journal-Constitution - Published on: 01/15/08
The Georgia House took a historic shot at Gov. Sonny Perdue on the first day of the 2008 session Monday by voting overwhelmingly to override a dozen bills he vetoed last spring.
But just as it had done in a similar situation at the end of the 2007 session, the state Senate came to Perdue's rescue and stalled the move. The Senate postponed any decision about joining the House in overriding the vetoes.
That delay will give Perdue time to lobby senators to oppose the House revolt, just as they did last year on his veto of a $142 million tax rebate.
Even so, the House's defiance suggested that this year's legislative session could be even more rancorous than last year's.
After the votes, Perdue spokesman Bert Brantley said, "Today's actions are yet another example of House leadership insisting on making a statement rather than making the state better.
"Georgians expect us to address serious issues facing this state and work together to solve problems, not create disputes between the branches of government."
House members denied afterward that they were renewing the political war with Perdue that began with last year's tax-bill veto.
"I don't know that it's really a signal [to Perdue]," Speaker Pro Tem Mark Burkhalter (R-Johns Creek) said. "It's more the House simply reasserting its position, some positions it felt strongly about."
The House did not consider trying to override Perdue's veto of the $142 million tax rebate because the money was part of the fiscal 2007 budget. Fiscal 2007 ended June 30, so that money is no longer available.
Among the vetoes overridden were for bills that:
- Made it less likely the state would take away college book allowances from HOPE scholars.
- Gave tax breaks to the builders of Cobb Energy Performing Arts Center, Encore Park in Alpharetta and large-scale tourist attractions.
- Made it easier for lawmakers to get financial information from state agencies.
The House vetoes violated an unwritten tradition of legislative decorum. Historically, the first day of the session is a day for backslapping and welcome-back speeches.
"I've been here 33 years," Rep. Bob Hanner (D-Parrott) said, "and I've never seen anything like it."
The Legislature last overrode vetoes —- on relatively minor bills —- 34 years ago.
After the 2007 session, Perdue vetoed 41 bills and budget appropriations.
Lawmakers were particularly irate about Perdue's decision to redirect funding on more than a dozen separate appropriations they had approved. Essentially, Perdue kept the money in the budget but told state agencies to ignore the directions the General Assembly gave them on how to spend it.
House leaders are planning to file legislation this session in hopes of keeping the governor from taking such action again.
Most of the vetoes the House sought to undo Monday were on bills approved by unanimous votes in the General Assembly last year.
In general, fewer than two dozen House members sided with the governor Monday on any of the override votes.
Democrats joined the Republican majority in supporting the override effort after meeting in the morning.
"Our motto has been that, if you see a good fight, get out of the way," House Minority Caucus Chairman Calvin Smyre (D-Columbus) said. "But we felt . . . we should stand up on these issues."
Even before the voting was over, Speaker Glenn Richardson (R-Hiram), sounded as if he knew that the Perdue-friendly Senate would at least temporarily foil the House's plans.
"The Constitution requires them to immediately consider [the overrides] and not to play a game," Richardson said. "But I predict the other body that took an oath may well shirk their responsibility and not address these matters."
Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle, who presides over the Senate, said the veto overrides would be considered individually by the Senate Rules Committee. The committee might, or might not, send them to the full Senate for a vote.
"The bottom line is that these bills have broad statutory and budgetary impact," Cagle said, "and we need to fully weigh the perspectives of the governor and the House prior to a floor vote."
Staff writer Andrea Jones contributed to this article.
The Georgia House took a historic shot at Gov. Sonny Perdue on the first day of the 2008 session Monday by voting overwhelmingly to override a dozen bills he vetoed last spring.
But just as it had done in a similar situation at the end of the 2007 session, the state Senate came to Perdue's rescue and stalled the move. The Senate postponed any decision about joining the House in overriding the vetoes.
That delay will give Perdue time to lobby senators to oppose the House revolt, just as they did last year on his veto of a $142 million tax rebate.
Even so, the House's defiance suggested that this year's legislative session could be even more rancorous than last year's.
After the votes, Perdue spokesman Bert Brantley said, "Today's actions are yet another example of House leadership insisting on making a statement rather than making the state better.
"Georgians expect us to address serious issues facing this state and work together to solve problems, not create disputes between the branches of government."
House members denied afterward that they were renewing the political war with Perdue that began with last year's tax-bill veto.
"I don't know that it's really a signal [to Perdue]," Speaker Pro Tem Mark Burkhalter (R-Johns Creek) said. "It's more the House simply reasserting its position, some positions it felt strongly about."
The House did not consider trying to override Perdue's veto of the $142 million tax rebate because the money was part of the fiscal 2007 budget. Fiscal 2007 ended June 30, so that money is no longer available.
Among the vetoes overridden were for bills that:
- Made it less likely the state would take away college book allowances from HOPE scholars.
- Gave tax breaks to the builders of Cobb Energy Performing Arts Center, Encore Park in Alpharetta and large-scale tourist attractions.
- Made it easier for lawmakers to get financial information from state agencies.
The House vetoes violated an unwritten tradition of legislative decorum. Historically, the first day of the session is a day for backslapping and welcome-back speeches.
"I've been here 33 years," Rep. Bob Hanner (D-Parrott) said, "and I've never seen anything like it."
The Legislature last overrode vetoes —- on relatively minor bills —- 34 years ago.
After the 2007 session, Perdue vetoed 41 bills and budget appropriations.
Lawmakers were particularly irate about Perdue's decision to redirect funding on more than a dozen separate appropriations they had approved. Essentially, Perdue kept the money in the budget but told state agencies to ignore the directions the General Assembly gave them on how to spend it.
House leaders are planning to file legislation this session in hopes of keeping the governor from taking such action again.
Most of the vetoes the House sought to undo Monday were on bills approved by unanimous votes in the General Assembly last year.
In general, fewer than two dozen House members sided with the governor Monday on any of the override votes.
Democrats joined the Republican majority in supporting the override effort after meeting in the morning.
"Our motto has been that, if you see a good fight, get out of the way," House Minority Caucus Chairman Calvin Smyre (D-Columbus) said. "But we felt . . . we should stand up on these issues."
Even before the voting was over, Speaker Glenn Richardson (R-Hiram), sounded as if he knew that the Perdue-friendly Senate would at least temporarily foil the House's plans.
"The Constitution requires them to immediately consider [the overrides] and not to play a game," Richardson said. "But I predict the other body that took an oath may well shirk their responsibility and not address these matters."
Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle, who presides over the Senate, said the veto overrides would be considered individually by the Senate Rules Committee. The committee might, or might not, send them to the full Senate for a vote.
"The bottom line is that these bills have broad statutory and budgetary impact," Cagle said, "and we need to fully weigh the perspectives of the governor and the House prior to a floor vote."
Staff writer Andrea Jones contributed to this article.
Can’t we all get along?
by Tom Crawford - From Capitol Impact's Georgia Report - 1/15/2008 - http://www.ciclt.net/garpt/
Sonny Perdue shared the stage with Glenn Richardson and Casey Cagle at the Georgia Chamber of Commerce’s annual “Eggs & Issues” breakfast Tuesday, and the most newsworthy development was that the trio avoided hitting or throwing food at each other.
“We weren’t sure what we were going to see after 12 overrides of vetoes,” Chamber President George Israel said, referring to Monday’s historic votes in the House of Representatives, engineered by Speaker Richardson, to override a dozen Perdue vetoes from last year.
The trio of elected officials were all on their best behavior as they talked to the business audience about the upcoming legislative session, although Cagle included some veiled criticisms of the ongoing squabbling between Perdue and Richardson.
“At the end of the day, Georgians want results and they don’t care who gets the credit,” Cagle said. “We need to act on principles and stop acting on politics.”
“I am certainly not interested in playing games; I am ready to move our state forward,” Cagle added in a speech that sounded more like a kickoff for the 2010 governor’s race.
“All I know is, there’s a job to do,” said Richardson, who contended that he, Perdue and Cagle all share a “common goal” of helping Georgians. “We’re going to talk, we’re going to agree, and we’re going to disagree.”
One specific topic addressed at the breakfast was the attempt by NRA lobbyists to get a bill passed that would make it illegal for businesses and employers to adopt policies that prohibit employees from bringing guns to the workplace. The bill is staunchly opposed by the Georgia Chamber and other business groups as an intrusion upon private property rights.
“The Georgia Chamber has never not supported the Second Amendment, and we are not promoting any legislation that would lessen gun owners’ rights,” said Charles Tarbutton, the chamber’s chairman. “What we do oppose strongly is the NRA’s attempt to expand gun owners’ rights at the expense of private property rights and employers’ rights.”
Tarbutton urged elected officials to focus on more substantive issues like water and transportation “and not become distracted with what we think is a narrow special interest of the NRA that appears more to be a solution looking for a problem.”
“Our constitution is great, but when we try to make one constitutional right greater than another, we run into problems,” said Perdue, who added that “the NRA is my friend.”
“I implore both sides to come together . . . make sure these constitutional rights don’t collide with one another,” Perdue said.
Sonny Perdue shared the stage with Glenn Richardson and Casey Cagle at the Georgia Chamber of Commerce’s annual “Eggs & Issues” breakfast Tuesday, and the most newsworthy development was that the trio avoided hitting or throwing food at each other.
“We weren’t sure what we were going to see after 12 overrides of vetoes,” Chamber President George Israel said, referring to Monday’s historic votes in the House of Representatives, engineered by Speaker Richardson, to override a dozen Perdue vetoes from last year.
The trio of elected officials were all on their best behavior as they talked to the business audience about the upcoming legislative session, although Cagle included some veiled criticisms of the ongoing squabbling between Perdue and Richardson.
“At the end of the day, Georgians want results and they don’t care who gets the credit,” Cagle said. “We need to act on principles and stop acting on politics.”
“I am certainly not interested in playing games; I am ready to move our state forward,” Cagle added in a speech that sounded more like a kickoff for the 2010 governor’s race.
“All I know is, there’s a job to do,” said Richardson, who contended that he, Perdue and Cagle all share a “common goal” of helping Georgians. “We’re going to talk, we’re going to agree, and we’re going to disagree.”
One specific topic addressed at the breakfast was the attempt by NRA lobbyists to get a bill passed that would make it illegal for businesses and employers to adopt policies that prohibit employees from bringing guns to the workplace. The bill is staunchly opposed by the Georgia Chamber and other business groups as an intrusion upon private property rights.
“The Georgia Chamber has never not supported the Second Amendment, and we are not promoting any legislation that would lessen gun owners’ rights,” said Charles Tarbutton, the chamber’s chairman. “What we do oppose strongly is the NRA’s attempt to expand gun owners’ rights at the expense of private property rights and employers’ rights.”
Tarbutton urged elected officials to focus on more substantive issues like water and transportation “and not become distracted with what we think is a narrow special interest of the NRA that appears more to be a solution looking for a problem.”
“Our constitution is great, but when we try to make one constitutional right greater than another, we run into problems,” said Perdue, who added that “the NRA is my friend.”
“I implore both sides to come together . . . make sure these constitutional rights don’t collide with one another,” Perdue said.
Georgia Legislature 2008: A Look at the Issues
Stacy Shelton, Craig Schneider, James Salzer, Ariel Hart, Ben Smith, Andrea Jones, Bridget Gutierrez - The Atlanta Journal-Constitution - Published on: 01/14/08
The 2008 edition of the Georgia General Assembly, which opens in Atlanta this morning, faces a host of serious election-year issues, from long-range water planning and funding for Grady Memorial Hospital to the proposed elimination of property taxes to fund schools.
An overview of the top topics:
WATER - Water is back as one of the Legislature's top priorities, nearly two years into one of the worst droughts ever recorded in North Georgia.
Whatever gets decided will not happen soon enough to address metro Atlanta's current water crisis. Only rain and the federal government, which operates the region's major water supply reservoirs, can fix it.
But top leaders already have promised state funds to help build more reservoirs for the future. And legislators will vote on a 92-page policy guideline and to-do list that lays out how the state —- acting through 11 water districts —- will spend the next three years determining how to divide Georgia's lakes, streams and underground aquifers.
Just as important as the document will be the funds attached to it. One estimate for the work needed is $36.5 million, to be spent on a variety of data gathering.
Top Republican leaders, including the governor, and the business community are leading the charge, but they expect a fight. More than almost any other issue in Georgia, water is a true dividing line between metro Atlanta and the rest of the state. —- Stacy Shelton
GRADY - Grady officials are hoping the state Legislature creates and funds a statewide trauma care network, which could contribute millions of dollars to the financially-strapped hospital.
Grady officials, who operate the state's busiest and most sophisticated trauma unit, want to see as much as $30 million from the passage of permanent funding for the state's trauma units. In December, House Speaker Glenn Richardson (R-Hiram) proposed to help fund the trauma network with a $10 annual fee on vehicle registrations. Also, Gov. Sonny Perdue has proposed additional fines on "super speeders" to help fund the network. —- Craig Schneider
TAXES - Property taxes will be one of the most debated topics of the 2008 session, especially during the early part of the session.
House Speaker Glenn Richardson (R-Hiram) is pushing a plan to eliminate most school property taxes and replace the lost revenue with a sales tax that covers more goods and services. Richardson's plan is expected to be considered early in the session by the House.
Its chances of passage are iffy at best because it includes a proposed constitutional amendment. To get the proposed amendment on the ballot, Richardson would need two-thirds of the House and Senate to support it. He also is seeking legislation to freeze property values at tax time. That would essentially freeze property taxes unless local cities, counties or school districts raise millages.
Several other similar proposals are being floated by lawmakers. Meanwhile, Gov. Sonny Perdue will continue to promote his bill to eliminate taxes on retirement income for upper-income retirees. The Senate has passed the bill, but the House has held off because it wants more broad-based tax reform.
Speaker pro-tem Mark Burkhalter (R-Alpharetta) is backing Richardson's proposal. If it doesn't pass, however, Burkhalter wants lawmakers to look at his bill to eliminate property taxes on cars. —- James Salzer
TRANSPORTATION - One of the biggest transportation votes is expected to come at the beginning of the session: the payback attempt against two members of the state Transportation Board by House leaders furious because of their votes for the new transportation commissioner. Mike Evans and Raybon Anderson, who voted for the governor's candidate over the speaker's candidate, are among five DOT board members up for re-election by caucuses of state legislators.
In legislation, to tax or not to tax is still the question. Two big transportation funding bills last year —- one regional, one statewide —- went into a study committee. The committee's recommendation is expected soon, but it not only is an election year but also a year in which some local officials will be trying to protect their own special purpose local option sales taxes that are up for renewal.
Among other possible bills, safety officials are girded against attempts to repeal red-light camera laws, which they say save lives. —- Ariel Hart
SEX OFFENDERS - The debate whether sex offenders can be barred from living and working within 1,000 feet of churches, schools and day-care centers returns to the Georgia Legislature.
State Rep. David Ralston (R-Blue Ridge) wants to reinstate the distance requirement that the Georgia Supreme Court struck down in November.
The high court ruled the ban unconstitutional because it could deprive an offender of the right to own property. Before the court's ruling, a homeowner listed on the state's sex offender registry could be forced to move if a church, school or day-care center opened within 1,000 feet of his house.
Ralston, who chairs the House Judiciary Non-Civil Committee, proposes exempting such property owners from the residency restriction.
But civil libertarians say Ralston's proposal also is unconstitutional because it doesn't exempt renters or institutionalized people. Thus, offenders could be forced out of half-way houses and hospices if a children's center were to open inside the 1,000-foot buffer. —- Ben Smith
SUNDAY SALES - Sunday sales of beer and wine are being pushed again by stores, but the chances of getting a bill through the General Assembly this session are not good.
Last year, officials for grocery and convenience stores pushed legislation that would have allowed local voters to decide on the sale of beer, wine and liquor at stores on Sundays.
Conservative Christian groups opposed it, as did some prominent liquor store owners who do not want to have to pay Sunday payrolls while facing competition from groceries and convenience stores. The measure stalled in the Senate, with supporters blaming a liquor store owner with ties to Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle, who presides over the Senate.
Proponents note that Georgia is one of just a few states with a total Sunday sales ban, and they say more and more of their customers shop on Sundays. However, it will be a tough sell in an election year, when most lawmakers try to avoid the issues that rile up key groups of voters. —- James Salzer
GUNS - A battle over gun bills is sure to erupt in the legislature this year, with the National Rifle Association throwing its full support and resources behind one bill and Georgia gun owners and some lawmakers backing another. The NRA is backing a bill that would allow employees to keep handguns in their cars at work. Rep. Tim Bearden (R-Villa Rica) filed a broader bill that would expedite firearm permits and allow gun owners to carry concealed weapons in many more places. —- Andrea Jones
EDUCATION - Always a major issue, education funding will receive renewed attention this year as advocates of public schools try to protect campuses from potential changes in Georgia's tax structure and in the way state funds are distributed.
Educators are waiting to see if Gov. Sonny Perdue will continue cutbacks, first started in fiscal 2003. Metro Atlanta school systems lose millions of dollars every year to Perdue's "austerity reductions" —- losses they make up for through property taxes.
The governor's Education Finance Task Force, charged with redoing the k-12 funding formula, is suggesting that systems be allowed to spend state money where needed, rather than where told. If legislators can't remedy the finance problem, a judge could step in. A lawsuit by rural systems, which claims that state officials are not adequately funding schools, is scheduled for trial in September.—- Bridget Gutierrez
The 2008 edition of the Georgia General Assembly, which opens in Atlanta this morning, faces a host of serious election-year issues, from long-range water planning and funding for Grady Memorial Hospital to the proposed elimination of property taxes to fund schools.
An overview of the top topics:
WATER - Water is back as one of the Legislature's top priorities, nearly two years into one of the worst droughts ever recorded in North Georgia.
Whatever gets decided will not happen soon enough to address metro Atlanta's current water crisis. Only rain and the federal government, which operates the region's major water supply reservoirs, can fix it.
But top leaders already have promised state funds to help build more reservoirs for the future. And legislators will vote on a 92-page policy guideline and to-do list that lays out how the state —- acting through 11 water districts —- will spend the next three years determining how to divide Georgia's lakes, streams and underground aquifers.
Just as important as the document will be the funds attached to it. One estimate for the work needed is $36.5 million, to be spent on a variety of data gathering.
Top Republican leaders, including the governor, and the business community are leading the charge, but they expect a fight. More than almost any other issue in Georgia, water is a true dividing line between metro Atlanta and the rest of the state. —- Stacy Shelton
GRADY - Grady officials are hoping the state Legislature creates and funds a statewide trauma care network, which could contribute millions of dollars to the financially-strapped hospital.
Grady officials, who operate the state's busiest and most sophisticated trauma unit, want to see as much as $30 million from the passage of permanent funding for the state's trauma units. In December, House Speaker Glenn Richardson (R-Hiram) proposed to help fund the trauma network with a $10 annual fee on vehicle registrations. Also, Gov. Sonny Perdue has proposed additional fines on "super speeders" to help fund the network. —- Craig Schneider
TAXES - Property taxes will be one of the most debated topics of the 2008 session, especially during the early part of the session.
House Speaker Glenn Richardson (R-Hiram) is pushing a plan to eliminate most school property taxes and replace the lost revenue with a sales tax that covers more goods and services. Richardson's plan is expected to be considered early in the session by the House.
Its chances of passage are iffy at best because it includes a proposed constitutional amendment. To get the proposed amendment on the ballot, Richardson would need two-thirds of the House and Senate to support it. He also is seeking legislation to freeze property values at tax time. That would essentially freeze property taxes unless local cities, counties or school districts raise millages.
Several other similar proposals are being floated by lawmakers. Meanwhile, Gov. Sonny Perdue will continue to promote his bill to eliminate taxes on retirement income for upper-income retirees. The Senate has passed the bill, but the House has held off because it wants more broad-based tax reform.
Speaker pro-tem Mark Burkhalter (R-Alpharetta) is backing Richardson's proposal. If it doesn't pass, however, Burkhalter wants lawmakers to look at his bill to eliminate property taxes on cars. —- James Salzer
TRANSPORTATION - One of the biggest transportation votes is expected to come at the beginning of the session: the payback attempt against two members of the state Transportation Board by House leaders furious because of their votes for the new transportation commissioner. Mike Evans and Raybon Anderson, who voted for the governor's candidate over the speaker's candidate, are among five DOT board members up for re-election by caucuses of state legislators.
In legislation, to tax or not to tax is still the question. Two big transportation funding bills last year —- one regional, one statewide —- went into a study committee. The committee's recommendation is expected soon, but it not only is an election year but also a year in which some local officials will be trying to protect their own special purpose local option sales taxes that are up for renewal.
Among other possible bills, safety officials are girded against attempts to repeal red-light camera laws, which they say save lives. —- Ariel Hart
SEX OFFENDERS - The debate whether sex offenders can be barred from living and working within 1,000 feet of churches, schools and day-care centers returns to the Georgia Legislature.
State Rep. David Ralston (R-Blue Ridge) wants to reinstate the distance requirement that the Georgia Supreme Court struck down in November.
The high court ruled the ban unconstitutional because it could deprive an offender of the right to own property. Before the court's ruling, a homeowner listed on the state's sex offender registry could be forced to move if a church, school or day-care center opened within 1,000 feet of his house.
Ralston, who chairs the House Judiciary Non-Civil Committee, proposes exempting such property owners from the residency restriction.
But civil libertarians say Ralston's proposal also is unconstitutional because it doesn't exempt renters or institutionalized people. Thus, offenders could be forced out of half-way houses and hospices if a children's center were to open inside the 1,000-foot buffer. —- Ben Smith
SUNDAY SALES - Sunday sales of beer and wine are being pushed again by stores, but the chances of getting a bill through the General Assembly this session are not good.
Last year, officials for grocery and convenience stores pushed legislation that would have allowed local voters to decide on the sale of beer, wine and liquor at stores on Sundays.
Conservative Christian groups opposed it, as did some prominent liquor store owners who do not want to have to pay Sunday payrolls while facing competition from groceries and convenience stores. The measure stalled in the Senate, with supporters blaming a liquor store owner with ties to Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle, who presides over the Senate.
Proponents note that Georgia is one of just a few states with a total Sunday sales ban, and they say more and more of their customers shop on Sundays. However, it will be a tough sell in an election year, when most lawmakers try to avoid the issues that rile up key groups of voters. —- James Salzer
GUNS - A battle over gun bills is sure to erupt in the legislature this year, with the National Rifle Association throwing its full support and resources behind one bill and Georgia gun owners and some lawmakers backing another. The NRA is backing a bill that would allow employees to keep handguns in their cars at work. Rep. Tim Bearden (R-Villa Rica) filed a broader bill that would expedite firearm permits and allow gun owners to carry concealed weapons in many more places. —- Andrea Jones
EDUCATION - Always a major issue, education funding will receive renewed attention this year as advocates of public schools try to protect campuses from potential changes in Georgia's tax structure and in the way state funds are distributed.
Educators are waiting to see if Gov. Sonny Perdue will continue cutbacks, first started in fiscal 2003. Metro Atlanta school systems lose millions of dollars every year to Perdue's "austerity reductions" —- losses they make up for through property taxes.
The governor's Education Finance Task Force, charged with redoing the k-12 funding formula, is suggesting that systems be allowed to spend state money where needed, rather than where told. If legislators can't remedy the finance problem, a judge could step in. A lawsuit by rural systems, which claims that state officials are not adequately funding schools, is scheduled for trial in September.—- Bridget Gutierrez
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