Latest news with #SenateBill81
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
The lack of housing in New Hampshire is hurting families. Are state senators listening?
Housing is in short supply throughout New Hampshire. (Photo by Dana Wormald/New Hampshire Bulletin) In the most recent UNH Granite State Poll, New Hampshire residents said housing is their top concern. More than three times as many people cited housing compared to the next most important issue, taxes. Yes, we are experiencing a statewide crisis of housing affordability. This crisis constrains economic growth and community vitality. Yet the New Hampshire Senate is poised to vote on a state budget that turns its back on housing, cutting funding for important programs that help our cities and towns meet their housing challenges and missing opportunities to help developers build housing that Granite Staters can afford. The Housing Champions program was created by the Legislature in 2023 with a $5 million appropriation to provide grants to cities and towns to help them voluntarily change their zoning ordinances to be more 'housing friendly.' Communities that made these changes were recognized as 'Housing Champions' and are eligible for additional funding, such as grants for infrastructure improvements. So far, 18 communities have achieved this distinction, and others are poised to follow. Despite this celebrated success, the Senate has proposed zeroing out this program. This shortsighted decision takes away the principal incentive ('carrots, not sticks') for our cities and towns to make important zoning changes. Earlier this year, the Senate passed Senate Bill 81 (then tabled it to add it to the budget) increasing the annual allocation to the state's affordable housing trust fund from $5 million to $10 million and making an additional appropriation of $25 million to the trust fund. The annual increase acknowledges the rising cost of building homes — the same money just doesn't go as far as it once did. The additional one-time appropriation acknowledges the housing deficit we're in — we need to build many thousands more homes just to meet current demand and help our economy grow. Even with good zoning, the developments that house our workforce require significant financial resources. Witness the several developments that have stalled recently in Concord because of higher costs. Senators gave themselves the opportunity to add SB 81 to the budget and then ignored it. Finally, the Senate has proposed reducing funding to the Housing Appeals Board, an innovative approach to addressing appeals of local planning and zoning decisions. The Legislature created the fast-track of the Housing Appeals Board in 2020 recognizing the delays that housing developments faced when local decisions were appealed to court. Time is money, and delays add to development costs. The Housing Appeals Board has been nationally recognized as a light-touch, small-government approach, and it has shown to be an effective and efficient means of hearing appeals. In the midst of a housing crisis, it is nonsensical to pull back on a proven way to speed up final decisions on development proposals. Our current lack of sufficient housing is a drag on economic growth and is hurting New Hampshire's families. It's time for the Senate to put its money — our money — where its mouth is: fund these vital housing programs and help move the Granite State out of its current housing crisis and toward a better, brighter future.
Yahoo
25-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Roundhouse effort to overhaul NM's home ‘insurer of last resort' fails
Rep. Harlan Vincent (R-Ruidoso Downs) asks questions of a panel at the Legislative Finance interim committee in Mescalero shortly after the South Fork and Salt fires. Vincent's bill to reform the state's residual insurance plan did not get through the Legislature, but he says lawmakers' other efforts will help the market cover New Mexicans who need it. (Photo by Danielle Prokop / Source NM) Senate Bill 81, which aimed to make it easier for New Mexicans in wildfire-prone areas to secure home insurance, never received its final committee hearing in the 60-day session, but the bill's Republican sponsor said reason for optimism remains for those trying to rebuild after wildfires. The bill would have required the board overseeing the Fair Access to Insurance Requirements plan to increase coverage limits to $750,000 for homes and overhauled a board now composed of insurance executives. The state's top 10 home insurers have increased premiums 60%, on average, since 2022, and insurers are also increasingly refusing to renew policies or canceling them. That's what makes reforms to the FAIR plan, often referred to as the state's home 'insurer of last resort,' all the more necessary, sponsors have said. NM Gov fire-insurance proposal 'won't happen this session' Even with the increase of costs to rebuild homes and rising home prices, the plan only covered $250,000 of losses for most of its existence until shortly after the South Fork and Salt Fires in Ruidoso, when the board agreed to increase it to $350,000. The FAIR plan board met again during the legislative session and increased the coverage limits to $750,000, plus up to $1 million for commercial properties, according to Rep. Harlan Vincent (R-Ruidoso Downs). Increasing the coverage cap to $750,000 was expected to increase the number of FAIR plan holders from about 7,000 to about 11,000, state insurance officials have said. 'SB81 had lots of traction, and it was a bipartisan effort,' Vincent told Source New Mexico on Saturday, following a post-session press conference with Republican leaders. 'However, the board [was] able to meet all the demands that the bill was asking for, except for the reforming of the board.' The bill's proposed board reforms included adding a consumer advocate, climate scientist and catastrophic risk expert to the board. It was amended again on the Senate floor to scrap that proposal and instead allow legislative leaders to appoint board members. None of the proposed amendments would have allowed the public to see what happens in FAIR Plan board meetings, even though the Legislature created the FAIR plan in 1969 and sought a major overhaul of the program this session. Vincent told Source New Mexico he believes the meetings should be public, however. 'I'm a very transparent person,' he said. 'So, yes, I do.' Why the state's insurance regulator thinks SB81 will save New Mexicans' homes from wildfire Even without SB81, Vincent said he thinks other legislative acts this session will help homeowners protect their homes from wildfires and also get enough coverage to rebuild if they occur. Several bills aim to address the insurance problem, directly or indirectly, including one that creates a state wildfire suppression fund and others that encourage or incentivize wildfire mitigation through the use of thinning and ignition-resistant construction materials. 'I'm thinking that a lot of our insurance problems are eventually going to start going away, traditional insurance starts to come back, because we were able to get four, three bills across the finish line that had to do with wildfire,' he said. 'So we're going to try to start doing wildfire mitigation so that we can make it not such a risk for insurance companies to come back.'
Yahoo
28-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
NM Gov fire-insurance proposal ‘won't happen this session'
Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham gestures during her State of the State address on Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025. Her proposal described in the speech for a state-sponsored fire insurance program won't happen this session, a spokesperson said. (Danielle Prokop / Source NM) After announcing a proposal to create a state-sponsored fire insurance program in her State of the State address a month ago, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham will instead commission a study on the idea because her office failed to find a sponsor, according to a spokesperson for her office. Citing the wildfires in Los Angeles and ones here in New Mexico, the governor dedicated part of her speech to announce the creation of a state-run fire insurance program separate from the private market. 'Fires spurred by climate change have also ravaged communities in our state, testing our patience and resilience as we struggle under the weight of natural disasters in our backyards,' Lujan Grisham said in her speech. 'As if the fires themselves aren't difficult enough, getting insurance protection is becoming impossible, either because it's simply no longer available or exorbitantly expensive.' The program would also be separate from the Fair Access to Insurance Requirements Plan, governor's spokesperson Michael Coleman said after the speech, which was created by the Legislature in 1969 to serve as an insurer of last resort primarily in fire-prone areas. The governor's program would be structured similar to the state's workers' compensation fund, requiring initial state funding and 'limited liability' to the state, with the ultimate goal of providing coverage to anyone who needs it, Coleman said. But the governor's office could not find a sponsor for the legislation, Coleman told Source New Mexico on Thursday afternoon. Instead, the governor will commission a study on the issue, a spokesperson said. 'The governor will keep pursuing this idea, but it won't happen this session,' Coleman said in an email. Several bills making progress this session aim to spur mitigation of fire-prone communities and homes, and revamp the FAIR plan. Senate Bill 81, which the state Office of the Superintendent of Insurance endorses, would increase coverage limits from $350,000 to $1 million for homes and also change the makeup of the FAIR plan board, which is now made up of insurance industry leaders, to include a climate scientist, a consumer advocate, a catastrophic risk management expert and others. Since 2022, average premiums have increased 60% across the state, the OSI chief actuary recently testified, and insurers are increasingly canceling policies or refusing to renew them. The increases come as wildfires in New Mexico are occurring with more frequency and ferocity, including the state's biggest-ever wildfire in 2022 and the most destructive, in terms of structures destroyed, last summer.
Yahoo
20-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
New Ohio bills vow property tax relief for seniors, veterans
[In the player above, watch previous FOX 8 News coverage on property values in Northeast Ohio.] COLUMBUS, Ohio (WJW) — A new Senate bill from a Northeast Ohio lawmaker proposes freezing property tax increases indefinitely on homes that are seniors' primary residences. Another would exempt disabled veterans from property taxes entirely, while extending that exemption to their surviving spouses. Elsewhere in the Statehouse, a newly introduced House bill would 'fundamentally' change longstanding state property tax credits, intending to offer more tax relief to Ohioans who need it most. It's the first of more than a dozen House bills on property tax reform expected in this General Assembly, said its sponsor, a local state representative. Frustration mounts as Ohio statehouse tackles property tax relief Under Senate Bill 81, introduced by state Sen. Tom Patton of Strongsville, R-24th, eligible seniors' property taxes would be locked in once they qualify. For example, if a homeowner first qualifies for the freeze in tax year 2025, their taxes would be frozen at their tax year 2024 levels, according to a Legislative Service Commission analysis. The freeze functions as a tax reduction, where the reduction is however much their taxes increased from the year before they qualified. 'It's not rocket science,' Patton told FOX 8 News. Seniors who have lived in their homes for decades paid much less for them than what they're worth today — especially in high-value neighborhoods like Tremont and Ohio City, Patton said. 'When these last property valuations came out so markedly high, it troubled the hell out of a lot of people, but especially my retirees,' he said. 'I've had people tell me they end up cutting their pills in half. I've had clerks at the Giant Eagle tell me when it's a day or two before their Social Security checks arrive, they're asking if there's two-day-old bread.' If a homeowner is also eligible for Ohio's homestead tax exemption, it would take effect first, reducing the amount of taxes they owe before they're frozen at that level. These reductions would not be reimbursed by the state. The leftover tax burden would be shifted to eligible seniors' neighbors, Patton said. 'But I'd be the first to say if [my property tax] goes up $20 a year to take care of the retiree next to me, I'm OK with that,' he said. To qualify, homeowners would have to be at least 65 years old and have a total annual adjusted gross income less than $70,000, according to a news release from Patton's office. They would be able to apply for the freeze through their county auditor's office and would need documentation to prove they're eligible, according to the commission. The bill has been referred to the Senate's Ways and Means Committee and had its first hearing on Tuesday, Feb. 18. Patton's Senate Bill 92, also introduced this month, would make totally disabled veterans' homes entirely exempt from property taxes. Ohio's homestead exemption is for homeowners who live in their home and are 65 and older, permanently and totally disabled, or spouses of a first responder who was killed in the line of duty. It essentially knocks $28,000 off the taxable value of a home, or $56,000 for disabled veterans and first responders' spouses, according to a Legislative Service Commission analysis. Patton's bill would replace the enhanced exemption for veterans with a total exemption. They would be able to apply for the exemption through their county auditor, and would have to show that they have a total disability rating and that they were honorably discharged. 'Our disabled veterans have already sacrificed so much for the country, there is no reason why they should feel like their homes are threatened by unaffordable increases in their property taxes,' Patton is quoted in a news release. 'My colleagues and I are working to address property tax affordability, and in the interim we must protect those who protected us on the front lines.' Currently, Ohio fully reimburses forgone tax revenue from the homestead exemption. The bill is now before the Senate's Ways and Means Committee and had its first hearing on Tuesday, Feb. 18. If approved by the Legislature, it would take effect in tax year 2025. Since Ohio property taxes are paid in arrears, that means eligible veterans would stop paying in 2026. How to file a property valuation complaint in Cuyahoga County Homestead exemption values are adjusted for inflation, but rising property values have been outpacing them, said state Rep. David Thomas of Jefferson, R-65th. House Bill 61, called the Homestead and Owner Occupancy Overhaul Act, replaces each of those forenamed tax benefits with a flat credit capped at $750 — and $1,500 for veterans and spouses — which would increase alongside inflation. 'It's fundamentally changing how the credit is given,' said Thomas. The exemption currently saves households an average $350 to $500 each tax year, but that can vary greatly depending on the home's value, he said. Overall, homeowners are saving about as much with them as they did in 2007, when the exemptions were expanded. An increase to $750 will be a big bump for most folks, Thomas said. 'This change is vital because currently homestead folks are actually losing credit amount each year as the value taken off the property increases less than the tax rate applied to it decreases,' Thomas is quoted in a news release. 'By having a flat amount that increases with inflation, we will be sure that seniors will not lose savings and will be guaranteed to see that savings increased.' Since tax exemptions are tied to a property's value, they have more of an impact in areas with higher tax rates. A flat dollar credit would have more of an impact for households with lower income or property values, Thomas said. Ohio's owner-occupancy tax credit reduces taxes on all other homeowners' primary residences by 2.5%. House Bill 61 replaces that 2.5% rollback with a flat $750 credit, also tied to inflation. The bill also reinstates 10% property tax rollbacks for non-business properties, which stopped more than a decade ago. The rollbacks gave owners of one-, two- or three-family dwellings or nontimber agricultural land a 10% reduction on their taxes owed under certain property tax levies approved before November 2013. The bill would allow the rollback to be applied to all voted levies. 'Hit so heavily': Cuyahoga County residents shocked by proposed property reappraisals Currently, property tax revenue forgone by the homestead and owner-occupancy benefits is entirely reimbursed by the state through sales and income taxes — to the tune of about $1 billion per year. Co-sponsoring state Rep. Jack Daniels of New Franklin, R-32nd, said that's 'not sustainable.' Under House Bill 61, the state would only reimburse half, leaving local taxing entities to share the rest of the burden, Thomas said. He added the 50-50 split is 'negotiable.' Thomas acknowledged that local government funding has dwindled over the last several years, but he noted that recent property revaluations — including in Cuyahoga County — have effectively raised property taxes across the state. Thomas' home county of Ashtabula had $13 million in 'unvoted, unbudgeted' tax increases after its most recent property revaluation in 2023, he said. 'Some entities decided not to fully collect that amount or decrease their tax rates. Many entities did not,' Thomas said. 'Did your local governments collect that increase? No one theoretically held a gun to the school board or city council or county commissioners to collect the unvoted tax increase that resulted from the revaluation. Entities could have said no,' he later added. 'The question taxpayers need to ask is, 'What did you do?' and 'How are you spending that increase?'' Since property taxes are paid in arrears in Ohio, some changes to the law would apply to tax years ending after the bill takes effect. Other changes would apply to manufactured homes — which are specially taxed for the current year — as soon as 90 days after the bill becomes a law. The bill has been referred to the House Ways and Means Committee. Its first hearing was set for Wednesday, Feb. 19. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. 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