Legislative Session took a respite this past week (week 6) honoring Passover and Easter festivities. The House and Senate did approve budget plans and are getting organized for formal budget conference committees. The House and Senate remain $4 billion apart. A large divide at this time of session. FHBA is particularly interested in how the chambers approach funding for the Affordable Housing programs. The Senate provides for $121 million for State Home Incentive Program (SHIP) while the House only allocates. $30 million. FHBA supports the Senate Position.
The Senate also moved its Worker’s Compensation bill through its last committee of reference. The Senate Bill, 1582 by Sen. Bradley, does not provide the projected savings as the House version, HB 7085 by Rep. Burgess. While the Senate bill waits to be placed on the Special Order Calendar for a floor vote, the House Bill is on Special Order for second reading on Tuesday.
The House Building Code Bill (HB 1021 by Rep. Avila) is also on the Special Order calendar for the House on Tuesday. Meanwhile, its Senate Companion, SB 1312 by Sen. Perry, is scheduled for a hearing by the Senate Community Affairs Committee today (Monday) at 4:00 P.M. These bills continue to implement recommendations of the Construction Industry Workforce Task Group and make various small code changes.
Another recommendation by the Construction Industry Workforce Task Group concerns recommendations for increasing the number of building officials and inspectors. The House bill containing those provisions, HB 909 by Rep. Goodson, is on Tuesday’s Special Order calendar.
FHBA anticipates both House and Senate Judiciary Committees will include on their agendas for later this week our construction defects bills (HB 1271 by Rep. Trumbull and SB 1164 by Sen. Passidomo). These bills tweak the process to ensure that a home owner knows the contractor offered to repair the defect before a suit can be filed.
Finally, Rep. Moraitis’ condo legislation (HB 653) which contains a provision removing the sunset from the bulk buyer developer liability is scheduled to be heard by the Governmental Operations and Technology Appropriations Sub-committee this afternoon.
As you can tell, FHBA legislation priorities are indeed teed up for action this week.