Realtors, Home Owners and Tax Payers across the country and here in Wisconsin, have benefited from the donations made by all Realtors across the country. This is a glimpse of some of the good things made possible in 2009 with the use of our National Realtor Association RPAC donations in 2009, as posted by our local Board of Realtors.
Legislation Passed:
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$8000 Home Buyer Tax Credit for primary residence that does not require repayment.
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Banks permanently restricted from entering the real estate business.
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Extended the current limit on property tax increases for municipalities and counties for another two years
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A state budget that included no increase in the general income tax rate; no general sales tax rate hike, no sales tax on commissions.
Legislation Defeated:
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Restriction of the mortgage interest deduction as proposed by President Obama.
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Proposed doubling of the real estate transfer tax that would cost your sellers hundreds of dollars on the sale of their home.
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A proposal to change the definition of "agricultural land" for purposes of use-value assessments to exclude any land that was platted or zoned for residential, commercial or industrial use. This would have greatly increased housing costs to buyers and carrying costs for owners.
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A budget proposal to completely repeal Wisconsin's tax break on capital gains (60%), costing investors $485 million over two years.
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The governor's proposal to force a defendant, who is as little as 1% at fault in a lawsuit, to pay up to 100% of the damages if the other defendants are unable to pay. This would have involved REALTORS® in never-ending lawsuits. ("Joint and Several" provision).
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A $15.2 billion plan to provide a state government run universal healthcare plan, with a 4% employee payroll tax and a 10.5% employer tax.
2 items I am particularly please about are banks being restricted from entering the Realty Business and also stopping a hike in the transfer taxes paid when selling a home.
Are you searching for homes to buy in Viroqua or Vernon County Wisconsin
call Mary Strang therteam.com RE/MAX Hill Country Realty 608-606-2999
About the author:
Mary Strang is the Broker-owner of RE/MAX Hill Country Realty located in Viroqua, WI. Home to Organic farming, a small rural city population of about 4000 and a great place to live! Copyright © 2009 by Mary Strang. All rights reserved... " Legislative REPORT CARD " the blog post was written by Mary Strang is believed accurate but may not be guaranteed.
Hello Mary, you win some, and you lose some. At least we tried.
Kenneth, Thanks for stopping by, I agree you lose and some you win, glad we won no banks in RE after the amount of failed loans. Hope I am not being too hard on the big banks out there.
Now, if they will just get that first-time home buyers tax credit extended. We have legislation pending in CA to extend the new home buyer tax credit, which is ten grand spread out over 3 years. It is likely to get passed. But I'd really like to see the $8,000 tax credit extended. Everybody is hopeful but I'm not. In fact, when it expires on Nov. 30th, I'm heading off to Vietnam, because all business will come to a halt.
I have a few first time buyer's closing coming up and we too will see what it will be like when the freebie is finished.
Good report Mary......we have made some big strides legislatively this year...good to read something on AR that isn't whining about how much more the gov't should do about this and that....we all need to just do it !
Great one stop information Mary! Please see my post about extending the tax credit, if you haven't told congress yet, that you want it extended, here's your chance.
The combined efforts of many have accomplished much.
No banks in RE is HUGE.
So is the no transfer tax.
REALTORS are always among the largest national lobbying groups -- and pretty darn influential when we get all over an issue.
It's good to have a strong political action committee that cares!
We don't always have to agree with what NAR has done on our behalf, but some of the things they have either helped or stopped has helped our economy. I just wish we had more of a say in what they are doing than we do.
