 Friends, The state legislature has proposed a dizzying number of bills regarding housing and zoning which, like last session, are being fast-tracked through the House ‘Special’ Committee on Housing. The committee is stacked with many of the sponsors of these bills. The Senate is hearing zoning bills in their Commerce Committee. These bills seem to cover every last detail of every aspect of anything a town might be allowed to do regarding zoning. It is an egregious assault on local control. It’s death by a thousand cuts. With more than 1,000 bills to wade through, we’ve done the best we could to find those of the biggest concern and list them for you here in a PDF on our Bill Watch Page. We’ve also set up a HEARINGS thread, (the link is also on the BILL WATCH PAGE) to post weekly notices of hearings, along with instructions of how to proceed depending on the bill’s status. The first one is for the upcoming week of Feb. 3. Click on the title to see the full post. WORD FROM OUR SOURCES IN THE LEGISLATURE IS that we need HUNDREDS if not THOUSANDS of emails to show our opposition. At these early hearings, the usual lobbyists from the building and realty industries have been there testifying in support of the state meddling in our towns’ business, because it benefits THEM. And of course they use the ‘housing crisis’ as an excuse. If you have any questions about how to proceed, or feedback on any of these bills, do not hesitate to email us. Please note we will be adding some TAX and other MUNICIPAL issues that affect us to the main file, so always check to see the date of update of the PDF file. Remember, when it is time for the full House or Senate to vote on any of these bills, you are asking them to vote on the committee recommendation, not whether you support or oppose the bill. Example: Bill: HB623 – Title: relative to prohibiting corporations from purchasing single-family homes for a certain amount of time. Majority Committee Report: “Inexpedient to Legislate” 01/28/2025 (Vote 10-8; RC) Explanation: 10 people on the committee said NO, do not protect our neighborhoods from being bought up by corporations, and deemed the bill “Inexpedient to Legislate”, and 8 said YES you “Out to Pass” this bill. So since the bill was “ITL”, when it comes up for a full vote by all the Reps, we would ask them to vote NO to ITL because we support it. Thanks for your help. ~ BRA |
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