With the Missouri Legislature back from its spring break, key Missouri REALTORS®-supported bills kept advancing last week. Here is your update:
SECTION 8: Rep. Chris Brown’s House Bill 595 is on the Senate’s calendar for House Bills For Third Reading. The legislation by Rep. Brown, R-Kansas City, bars cities and counties from mandating landlords and property owners accept Section 8 rental vouchers. With its position on the Senate calendar, if the Senate takes up HB595, makes no changes and passes it, it would go directly to Gov. Mike Kehoe’s desk. Your REALTORS® lobbying team is working to get this measure to the governor.
BROKER AGREEMENTS: Rep. Chris Brown’s House Bill 596, protecting consumers and requiring a signed written contract with a buyer’s agent before performing real estate activities on behalf of a client, has been referred to the Senate Local Government, Elections and Pensions Committee. Identical Senate legislation, SB478 by Sen. Curtis Trent, R-Springfield, received a unanimous do-pass vote in the same committee recently, which bodes well for Rep. Brown’s version that is farther along in the legislative process than Sen. Trent’s. It’s notable that during its hearing, Sen. Trent’s version received no opposition testimony, while REALTORS® strongly supported the bill.
INITIATIVE PETITION PROTECTION: Multiple proposals, all opposed by Missouri REALTORS®, to weaken the people’s initiative petition power, received Senate committee hearings last week. They have been rolled by the committee into a single package, Senate Committee Substitute for Senate Joint Resolutions 47, 30 & 10 and is moving slowly through the process, the session clock is running, and your lobbying team is working to oppose this package.
PROTECT BAN ON SALES TAX ON SERVICES: Various proposals to repeal the Missouri Constitution’s ban on sales taxes on services are pending, but didn’t see any movement at all through the legislative process during March. Missouri REALTORS®, which promoted and won voter approval of the sales tax on services ban in 2016, is closely monitoring and opposing these various proposals to un-do what voters approved.