2008 Legislative SummaryBy Tom Farley, CEO  State Budget Update – Closing a $2 Billion Deficit We started off this year with an Arizona REALTOR® magazine article titled “2008 Legislative Session – Can Ya Spare a Billion $$?” As of June 26, the deficit has grown to approximately $2 billion. The legislature has passed a budget that is designed to close the deficit with some accounting maneuvers such as delaying a payment to K-12 education, agency cuts of approximately $360 million and a lot of bonding – approximately $400 million for school construction. It is very likely that this latest effort to fix the budget deficit was not enough, as most repor ...
More >>

Tuesday members of the Protect Our Homes committee, led by chairman Frank Dickens and AAR CEO Tom Farley, turned in a record breaking amount of signatures to the Arizona Secretary of State's office. Although only 230,000 certified signatures are required for the initiative to qualify, the group submitted almost 375,000 signatures breaking previous initiative signature records by more than 70,000 signatures. This puts the initiative one step closer to making the November ballot. The group's chairman, Frank Dickens, said this about the high signature numbers "What that shows is the overwhelming support that we have from Arizonans who want to protect their homes from double ta ...
More >>

The Protect Our Homes ballot initiative is getting close to turinging in its signatures to the Arizona Secretary of State's office! Once the signatures are validated by the Secretary of State, the ballot measure will be given a proposition number.  Thank you to everyone who volunteered their time to help collect petition signatures for this important endeavor! Your efforts and involvement are very much appreciated!  For more information on the initiative visit www.protectourhomes.com and sign on today! Paid for by: PROTECT OUR HOMES (AAR) IN SUPPORT OF C-18-2008. Major funding by the REALTORS® Issues Mobiliza ...
More >>

VOLUNTEER PETITION SIGNATURE DEADLINE THIS FRIDAY!Just a reminder that if you are a volunteer collecting petition signatures for the Citizen’s Initiative to Protect Our Homes, or know someone who is, all completed petitions are due to AAR no later than this Friday, May 30th, prior to close of business. Our heartfelt thanks to everyone who has volunteered their time and energy collecting signatures for this important campaign!   ...
More >>

This is your legislative update for April 25, 2008. Last week, the Arizona House and Senate finally reached an agreement on the state budget adjustments for fiscal year 2008. The deal includes: $311.5 million in cuts; $487 million to be used from the Rainy Day Fund; $272 million in K-12 rollover dollars; and $300 million in fund sweeps.  While the agreement did not include bonding for new school construction, there is speculation that the fiscal year 2009 budget could include a retroactive bonding mechanism. The total adjustments agreed to for the fiscal year 2007-2008 budget totaled $1.37 billion. The bill, HB2620: BUDGET; FISCAL 07-08; ADJUSTMENTS, has been transmitted ...
More >>

This is your Legislative Update for April 11, 2008. The Sheet Metal Workers Union filed a ballot initiative to require sellers and real estate licensees to provide, among other things, a 10-year home warranty for workmanship (a warranty that is NOT even available for older homes). These ballot petitions, referred to as “The Homebuyers’ Bill of Rights”, are currently on the street and are gaining signatures. SB1176 PURCHASER DWELLING ACTIONS; DEFINITIONS clarifies the definition of "seller" in statutes pertaining to dwelling actions (civil suits brought by buyers of a dwelling unit against the seller for defects in design or construction) and changes it t ...
More >>

We are now 71 days into the 2008 legislative session and 1,369 bills have been introduced.  Of those bills, AAR is actively tracking and monitoring almost 250 real estate-related bills. Like last year, 2008 is seeing a ‘deluge’ of water legislation as well as all of the usual subjects: HOA legislation; tax legislation; State Trust Land reform; among many others. Here is a round up of just a few of the bills that AAR has been working diligently on this session for you. HB2141: HOME SALES; WATER SUPPLY DISCLOSURE would require real estate licensees to investigate and disclose residential water supply determination for city water PRIOR TO ADVERTISING any resident ...
More >>

THE ARIZONA LEGISLATURE CONVENED -  The First Regular Session of the 48th Arizona Legislature 2nd session convened on Monday, January 14th, 2008, at Noon. In 2008 we will once again be facing some hard ongoing issues. These include HOA regulation of For Sale Signs, water adequacy disclosure by real estate licensees, transportation, property taxes and loan originator licensing among many others. AAR will persist following the issues that impact our members and will continue to work closely with the Governor and the legislature next session on these critical concerns.    LEGISLATIVE UPDATE -  There are two bills making their way through the legislature that we&rsq ...
More >>

Click here to listen to the Government Affairs legislative update ...
More >>

Representative Lucy Mason has sponsored HB2611: HOAs; Real Estate Signs. If passed, this bill would undo the provisions that SB1062 made to allow homeowners to market their properties. It would allow each individual HOA to regulate and dictate the size, content, height, color, etc. of for sale signs within their own communities. To read this bill in its entirety, click here.  ...
More >>