The Legislature is in full swing in Sacramento. The deadline for bills to pass the policy committees in the “house of origin” has now passed and the deadline for passage on the floor of the first house is June 2, 2017.

CMA is following more than 100 bills this year! In addition, we continue to review all amendments to all bills to be sure that
amendments made to a bill do not create a problem for the CMA membership.

Your Legislative Committee has been hard at work assisting in the review of legislation. With the retirement of long-time Legislative Chair George Eckert, the new committee consists of Committee Chair Noah Furie, Michelle Rodriguez, and Donald Herbert.

The following are four bills of interest to the CMA membership:

AB 1109 (Kalra) Consumer loans.
Rate cap for small real estate loans. We originally thought this measure was only intended to apply to “payday loan”
entities. However, the author indicated that the intent was to apply to small consumer loans (for personal, family or
household purposes) secured by real estate. CMA took an “Oppose Unless Amended” position that the bill should
be amended to exempt loans secured by real property. We are happy to report that the bill failed to move forward this
year. It is now a “two-year bill” which may not be further considered until January 2018 – the second year of this two-year
2017-2018 legislative session.

SB 2 (Atkins) $75 real estate document recording fee to finance affordable housing.
This is a re-introduction of a bill from last year that we successfully opposed. SB 2 would impose a $75 fee on the recording
of every real estate instrument, paper, or notice required or permitted by law to be recorded, per each single transaction per single parcel on real property, not to exceed $225. The bill exempts documents recorded for a transfer of real property that is a residential dwelling to an owner-occupier. SB 2 directs the expenditure of the revenue produced by efforts to stimulate affordable housing. We continue to work against SB 2. The bill will be more difficult to stop this year, because the Democrats now have a two-thirds majority in both houses of the Legislature.

SB 173 (Dodd) Re-creating the Department of Real Estate (DRE).
CMA is in strong support of the effort to re-establish the DRE. SB 173 would remove the Bureau of Real Estate from
the Department of Consumer Affairs and re-create it as the Department of Real Estate, a department within the Business,
Consumer Services, and Housing Agency.

SB 434 (Galgiani) Personal income taxes. Exclusion of mortgage debt forgiveness.
CMA is again supporting the bill to exempt mortgage debt forgiveness from personal income taxes. The Governor has vetoed similar legislation in the past, due to fiscal concerns. However, we hope to put this measure on the Governor’s desk again this year and encourage him to sign the bill into law conforming the California tax code to federal tax laws authorizing this exemption.

Your CMA Legislative Advocates sincerely appreciate the continued support we receive from the CMA membership. We encourage all members to meet with your legislators in their district offices on a Friday when they are back in the district. These meetings will allow you to let your legislator know the lending services CMA members provide to the public and the importance of protecting the ability for the CMA membership to continue to exist.