2021 Lobby Day
On April 27th, GCAR members participated in virtual Lobby Day hosted by NYSAR. The day began with a welcome meeting hosted by 2021 NYSAR President David Legaz who said, “Our efforts on Lobby Day are vital as we work to achieve our legislative goals in protecting our business and private property rights.” Following the welcome message, NYSAR Director of Government Affairs Mike Kelly reviewed NYSAR’s key legislative proposals.
Throughout the day, GCAR Members had nine virtual meetings with state and local lawmakers including, Senator Neil Breslin, Senator Michelle Hinchey, Senator Daphne Jordan, Senator James Tedisco, and Assembly Members Jake Ashby, Mary Beth Walsh, Phil Steck, John McDonald, and Patricia Fahy,
Below is an outline of the key issues that were presented in these meetings.
REALTORS® Support:
Remove Telemarketing Restrictions on Real Estate Licensees
(A.6756-Assm. Cusick) Allows licensed real estate professionals with the opportunity to provide services and information to the public, including telemarketing services, that are normally provided while not within a state of emergency.
Strengthen Fair Housing Laws in New York State
(S.2846-Sen. Kavanagh/A.5856-Assm. Lavine), (S.2874-Sen. Kavanagh/A.1623-Assm. Perry), (S.1449-Sen. Sanders/A.6510-Assm. Walker) Ensures fairness and transparency in the cooperative housing purchase process and combat illegal discrimination.
(S.112-Sen. Kaplan/A.4665-Assm. Sillitti) Creates a statewide fair housing testing program to root out illegal housing discrimination.
(S.2133-A-Sen. Skoufis/A.5363-Assm. Jean-Pierre) Adds an additional $30 surcharge to the license fee for real estate brokers and an additional $10 surcharge to the license fee for real estate salespersons to be used for statewide fair housing testing efforts.
(S.538-B-Sen. Kaplan/A.4638-A-Assm. Sillitti) Adds 2 hrs. of “implicit bias” education within the 22.5 hours CE requirement for license renewal.
(S.5982-Sen. Skoufis) Increases the total number of hours required to obtain a real estate broker’s license from 120 to 150 hours, increases the number of consecutive years licensed as a real estate agent prior to becoming a broker from 2 years to 5 years, and increases the number of fair housing course hours in a salesperson’s qualifying course from 4 hours to 6 hours.
Expanding Access to Affordable Housing
NYSAR strongly supports legislative efforts to increase homeownership in New York State and provide more affordable rental housing through new construction, the implementation of new zoning measures, and additional tax incentives. Across New York State, demand for housing is far out outpacing supply resulting in ever-increasing valuations and many buyers are being priced out of the market.
REALTORS® Oppose:
(S.3082-Sen. Salazar/A.5573-Assm. Hunter) To impose a statewide “good cause” eviction standard on rental housing with rent control measures.
(S.6362-Sen. Kavanagh/A.7175-Assm. Cymbrowitz) Extension of the current eviction moratorium. Would extend the expiration date of the original law establishing the Covid-19 Emergency Eviction and Foreclosure Prevention Act to August 31, 2021 from May 1, 2021.
