Virginia General Assembly Nears the End!
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The purveying political angst and power transition in the State Senate have affected the legislative session in many ways, including a sharp reduction in the number of bills introduced (down this year to about 2,600 bills from around 3,500 in a typical 60-day legislative session). In spite of this reduced workload, the VAMA Legislative Committee is tracking more than 100 pieces of legislation this year. The Committee reviews every bill introduced to determine potential impact on the industry. The Committee further actively intervenes, advocating for the passage of favorable measures and opposing and working towards the defeat of those legislative proposals that would increase costs or expand regulatory burdens placed on housing providers. The Committee does so by meeting and communicating with Delegates and Senators on issues of interest to the association, educating key members and staff, and providing testimony to enlighten the General Assembly with regard to the impacts of the legislative proposals before them. VAMA further maintains a full-time presence at the Capitol in the form of a dedicated lobbyist registered to represent the association.
This year, VAMA has further augmented its legislative program in a very significant way by engaging new members in the policy process. In the course of the 60-day session, several groups of VAMA members have visited the Capital and General Assembly Building. In addition to educating legislators with regard to specific pieces of legislation pending before their respective committees, they have spread the good work about our growing organization and the valuable service and economic impact our members provide to the Commonwealth. This helps to personalize the issues, demonstrate the strength and numbers behind our Legislative Committee and generally foster good will by building strong relationships for future interaction.
Through these efforts, VAMA has managed to rise above the partisan acrimony and advance several positive measures to save the commercial and multifamily real estate industries on their bottom lines and protect against harmful and onerous regulation and bureaucratic red tape. Among the highlights so far of this year’s legislative session, VAMA has advanced legislation to eliminate the calculation of interest on security deposits, and allow the amendment of unlawful detainers to account for all rent due (not just the amount due at the time of filing). VAMA has also saved the industry millions through its efforts by working to ensure the defeat of measures that would have prohibited employers from inquiring with regard to criminal history on employment applications, added source of income and sexual orientation to the list of protected classes under fair housing law, substantially increased the number (by a factor of five) of accessible units that must be constructed in conjunction with multifamily construction projects, allow tenants to hold up a building’s conversion to condominiums, created broad-reaching retrofit requirements for carbon monoxide detectors, allowed for regressive taxation of apartments that would not have been equally applied to owner-occupied properties, and created new legal hurdles for housing providers seeking to evict tenants.
