News from HQ
Only 42 Days Until the Capitol Hill Fly-in!
If you haven’t scheduled your meetings for the Fly-in, it’s not too late! To learn more about scheduling meetings with your federal legislators, check out the recording of our January 22 webinar, Capitol Hill Fly-in: Scheduling and Conducting Successful Meetings with Your Federal Legislators.
For more information on why your participation is critical check out this article by the American Society of Association Executives about why legislators tend to react more strongly to advocacy efforts focused on in-person meetings.
Once your meetings are scheduled, please send the details to IREMLegislation@irem.org.
Fly-in information & registration
Webinar: Capitol Hill Fly-in: Issues to discuss with legislators and their staff
Tuesday, February 25th 1:00pm Central Time
Now that you've scheduled your legislative meetings for the Fly-in, what issues should you discuss? Attend this one-hour live webinar to hear an overview from IREM Staff on the important issues you should talk about with your legislators and what actions you would like them to take.
Attend this free live webinar and learn:
- Background information on the issues
- Congressional actions to date
- IREM's position
- What Congressional action is needed
Register today!
IREM Success Story Spotlight
IREM Utah Gets a Big Win with State Tax Bill
By Ashley Kimmel, Utah Chapter IAE
The Utah Chapter just had a great win at our state legislature. A tax restructuring bill was proposed at the Utah State Capitol that would have imposed a service tax on all maintenance on real property. As our government affairs committee did the calculations we realized this new tax would increase the cost of maintenance anywhere from $0.16 - $0.46 per square foot. Furthermore, a tax of this structure is almost impossible to fully pass on to end users due to the standard leases that were already in place ranging from 5 – 10 years.
After we decided on our position, we began by attending the committee hearings and testifying which resulted in IREM being recognized on the local news. One of our members, Woodbury Corporation, and their attorneys drafted a letter explaining the problems with taxing commercial properties with this kind of tax structure. The Chapter combined with BOMA and circulated the letter to all our members collecting signatures. Woodbury then forwarded the letter onto the entire legislature. We then issued a call to action and had many members respond by contacting their representatives and expressing their opposition to the language in the bill. Finally we worked with our lobbyist and set up personal meetings with all the legislators on the tax committee. After multiple meetings we were able to establish relationships and explain our concerns to them.
The final result was the language being removed from the bill. The bill then passed in a special session and was signed by the Governor the 3rd week of December. It was a very rewarding process to be involved in. Many members and owners have expressed their gratitude for our efforts further showing the benefit of an IREM Membership.
Share Your Success Stories!
Did you or you chapter have an advocacy success story that you would like to share? We want to hear about it!
Whether it’s just a couple sentences or a full feature article – send us the details, and you could be recognized in future newsletters.
Affordable Housing
Why Affordable Housing is Facing a Perfect Storm
National News
- Realtor® Leaders Meet with Secretary Carson, Pass Sweeping New Fair Housing Action Plan
- Residential – Fair Housing
- The Rise of the Renter: For the First Time in Decades, Seattle Has As Many Renters as Homeowners
- Rent Control Brings Big Crowd to State House
- Residential – Rent Control
- Will The Opportunity Zone Guidance Affect Your Deal?
- Commercial – Opportunity Zones
The Government Affairs Digest is distributed monthly to the IREM Executive Committee, Regional Vice Presidents, Chapter Presidents and Chapter Legislative Chairs, Legislative and Public Policy Committee, and the Federal Housing Advisory Board. Other IREM members who would like to receive the newsletter may opt-in at any time.
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