KEY REALTOR® BILLS ADVANCE: Step by step, there was progress this week on key bills of interest to Missouri REALTORS®:
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The House gave final approval to House Bill 594 sponsored by Rep. Chad Perkins, R-Bowling Green, allowing deduction of capital gains from income subject to Missouri state taxation. That moved this REALTORS® priority bill to the Senate – good progress for this stage of the session.
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Another REALTOR® priority, House Bill 595 by Rep. Chris Brown, R-Kansas City, prohibiting local governments from mandating that property owners accept federal or other housing assistance programs, gained final House approval. It is also now ready for Senate committee assignment and consideration.
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Rep. Chris Brown is also sponsoring House Bill 596, dealing with brokerage services. The legislation requires a real estate licensee to enter into a written agreement with a buyer before engaging in specified activities. This is a top consumer protection priority and is in direct response to the NAR v. Sitzer/Burnett settlement from 2024. Once enacted into law, House Bill 569 will help protect real estate licensees and multiple listing service participants from potential future litigation risk. The bill was voted Do Pass Consent out of the House Financial Institutions Committee this week. By receiving consent status, the legislation will be sent to the House Consent and Procedure Committee for its review and approval. If approved by the Consent Committee, the bill will be placed on the Consent Calendar where it cannot be further debated or amended by the House, which would dramatically expedite the bill’s path to the Senate.
STATE INCOME TAX PROPOSALS: There are nine different House and Senate joint resolutions dealing with reducing the state income tax and offsetting the revenue loss in various ways – including some variation of imposing a sales tax on services. These are mostly the same proposals with only slight variations,
Several members have asked about these proposals, noting correctly that Missouri REALTORS® opposes repealing or weakening the consumer protections we proposed and successfully added to the Missouri Constitution in 2016.
Hearings were held on Wednesday in the Senate Economic Development and Workforce Committee on six of the income tax proposals filed in the Senate, and Missouri REALTORS® lobbyist Jason Zamkus provided testimony in opposition to each measure.
GOVERNOR VISIT: Last week, Missouri REALTORS® CEO Breanna Vanstrom and lobby team members Sam Licklider and Jason Zamkus met with Gov. Mike Kehoe in his office for a productive discussion on multiple issues. We look forward to working closely with Governor Kehoe and his administration to further our shared policy goals, which include increasing housing affordability and attainability throughout Missouri.