HBAI Legislative Committee Begins Its Work
Bill Ward, Executive Vice President, HBAI
The HBAI Government Affairs Committee bears the responsibility of initiating legislation that advocates the concept of attainable quality housing for all residents of Illinois. They also carry the weight of preventing passage of legislation detrimental to that goal.
Right now, and until the end of May, the committee will be meeting through conference calls each Tuesday of the week to review pending legislation, establish positions on those bills affecting home construction, remodeling, and land development, and providing HBAI Staff with their personal knowledge and experiences regarding the possible affects of those bills.
These meetings are closed to the public, but not to our members. Jason Paliatka, the 2019 Chair of the HBAI Government Affairs Committee welcomes every member and local association staffer to call in and participate in any manner that they so choose: from listening in on the conversation with the mute button on, to advocating your personal point of view on each bill discussed, we cherish and respect your opinion on these matters and hope you will find the process fruitful.
Should you have a mild curiosity about our process and want to peek in, or if you have the fire in the belly to participate in the political arena through the HBAI venue, feel free to contact me at billward@hbai.org and I will put you on my contact list. From there, you will receive a weekly notice of the next upcoming conference call, and a list of committee hearings and bills being considered at the Statehouse affecting housing that week. The call-in number will be provided on the notice.
Here’s a list of some of the bills that the HBAI Government Affairs Committee is currently addressing.
SB1352/Fine – Establishes a state Wetlands Protection Act. HBAI opposes.
SB1899/Link – Creates a Practice Act for Landscape Architects, moving up from a Title Act. HBAI opposes.
HB255/Guzzardi – Repeals an Act Prohibiting units of local government from enacting ordinances of Rent Control. HBAI opposes.
HB2192/Flowers – Creates a 6-tiered statewide governance allowing units of local government to enact ordinances of rent control.
HB358/Hoffman – Creates the Worker Protection Unit within the office of the Attorney General. The Unit will be assigned duties currently conducted by the Illinois Dept. of Labor to investigate possible violations to the Prevailing Wage Act, Employee Classification Act, The Minimum Wage Law, the Day and Temporary Labor Services Act, or the Wage Payment and Collection Act. The Worker Protection Unit will not replace the duties of the Dept. of Labor but will be in addition to the work of the DOL. HBAI is opposed.
HB3499/Manley – Holds builders personally responsible for home warranties in situations where a home is built by a Limited Liability Company and the LLC is dissolved prior to the expiration of the warranty. HBAI is opposed.
HB3600/Yingling – Expands the property tax benefits of the Vacant Lot Act to purchasers of developed lots. This is an HBAI initiative and we support its passage.
And finally, legislation will be introduced to prohibit home rule units from imposing transfer taxes on homes assessed for impact fees. This is also and HBAI initiative.
We will be addressing these issues and more at the 30th Annual HBAI Lobby Day to be held on Tuesday, April 30, 2019 in Springfield. We hope you can join us for a fast day of briefings, meetings, and receptions designed to carry the voice of the housing industry to the halls of the Illinois General Assembly.
