Ramos General Assembly Priorities - Results are In!
This year’s General Assembly was exciting for Baltimore and for our state. I spent a lot of time in the General Assembly this year, promoting the tax sale reform and vacant property bills. I love going to Annapolis! Here are the topics and bills that I supported, what happened, and what’s next.
Expansion of Judicial In Rem: Currently In Rem allows for jurisdictions to foreclose on properties when they are vacant and the liens exceed the value of the property. Baltimore is implementing this important tool now. This year, we want permission from the General Assembly to allow Baltimore City to foreclose on vacant properties when the liens do not exceed the value of the property. As I explained in my op-ed in the Baltimore Banner, this tool allows us to control the outcome of the vacant property and it is an expedited process. In our district, 28% of the 455 vacant properties in two neighborhoods are ready for In Rem now, and 35% are approaching In Rem status. If we had the expanded In Rem today, we could acquire 63% of the vacant properties in our district and ensure they are available for redevelopment based on community goals.
HB921/SB855 passed unanimously! This bill will expand In Rem to properties where the value of the liens do not exceed the value of the property, but are in arrears. The City Council will pass a law to outline the criteria and process, and then work to implement this important tool. This is exciting! Thanks to Mayor Scott for leading this and our Delegates and Senators for your support!
One other bill to prevent vacant properties - HB867/SB769 would have allowed for residents who are inheriting properties to own the home before paying the liens in Baltimore City. At this time, properties cannot transfer until all liens are satisfied. Heirs often cannot do that and the home sits. This bill passed the Senate but stalled in the House of Delegates. There was a statewide bill as well, and that stalled. We’ll be back!
Differential Tax Rates/Vacancy Tax: Right now, every jurisdiction in the state has to tax their properties the same rate - the jurisdiction decides what that rate is, but it is the same for each property in that jurisdiction. Delegate Boyce’s legislation asks the General Assembly to enable us to have different tax rates for different properties. We can use this to create a Vacancy Tax to help stack up the liens on vacant properties. Once this legislation passes at the state level, I will be introducing the vacancy tax here in Baltimore City.
HB231 sponsored by Delegate Boyce was watered down to just a vacancy tax. It passed the House but was unsuccessful in the Senate. We will give it a go again next year!
Note that the City Council just passed legislation to increase fees and fines for vacant properties which will accomplish the same goal.
Complete Tax Sale reform: Several bills this session will be geared toward complete reform of our tax sale system. Some will allow the jurisdictions to determine when to sell the liens (or never), some will enable jurisdictions to create their own systems and not have to use a third party collector. Baltimore City will be asking for complete and total reform of the system - from payment plans, to not having to sell the liens at all, to using In Rem only as a last resort. This is massive reform many of us have been working toward for decades, it’s very exciting! The goal is to ensure that no one has their home foreclosed upon because they cannot pay the taxes.
HB867/SB766 would allow for Baltimore to completely reform our tax sale system. The Baltimore City Council would still have to pass laws and create the system, this bill only enabled us to do so. It passed the House with no amendments, passed the Senate with an amendment to limit the bill to homeowners, which we did not favor. After working on additional amendments, it was decided that more work has to be done to help legislators and the City prepare for complete and total reform. We will be back next year.
Changes to the Homeowner’s Property Tax Credit: The best way to avoid tax sale is for elders and those who make $60,000 or less to apply for the Homeowner’s Property Tax Credit. This is a credit that will significantly reduce your property tax burden and the City gets paid by the state. Currently applicants have to apply each year. Delegate Feldmark has legislation to change that to a recertification and other reforms to make it much easier for residents to apply for this credit.
SB826/HB897 sponsored by Senator Hayes/Delegate Feldmark changes the requirements for the Homeowner’s Property Tax Credit applications for residents who receive social security as income. The applicant only has to apply every three years. This helps older adults who seek this credit not have to apply every year! This is a great start to the changes that need to be made to help more people access this important tax credit!
Preventing Exclusive Right to List: Many constituents and residents in our city and state have unfortunately fallen prey to a new scam - there is a specific company that offers a few hundred dollars in exchange for the exclusive right to list the home for the next 40 years should the owner or heirs sell, and make more money off of the transaction. At my request, Del. Amprey is introducing legislation to make this listing an instrument that will be subject the transfer and recordation taxes. Then I’ll introduce a bill to add the taxes to this new instrument. It is our hope that this practice will end with these actions.
SB579 sponsored by Delegate Hayes (which Delegate Amprey sponsored in the House), was successful! This bill would limit service agreements (like the one that MV Realty was using) to one year. This is a great step in preventing a predatory practice!
Limiting Wholesaling: The We Buy Houses companies are wholesalers - they are not licensed realtors for the most part. They offer lower prices to sellers and ask them to assign the contract to the wholesaler so they can turn around and sell the property for a higher value. Homeowners then do not get the full value of their property. Delegate Rosenberg’s legislation would require any agent doing real estate transactions to be licensed, which would significantly curb this practice.
Delegate Rosenberg’s bill HB301 was withdrawn so that the Real Estate Commission can study the issue. We will be back next year!
Budget Priorities: Baltimore needs millions to eliminate vacant and abandoned property through rehab or demolition - these funds should be used for stabilization, for the subsidy between the cost of rehab and what the home will be sold for or for affordable homeownership, and demolition when necessary. Mayor Scott has asked for $100 million for this effort, and I’m hoping we can double it. We’ll work hard for our community development needs as well.
The budget did not move forward for this year, and we’ll be working for more funding next year to address vacant properties.