Sen. Richard Tisei, a Wakefield Republican, was the keynote speaker at Realtors’ annual lobbying day last Thursday.
Proposals to charge taxes on property sales are discriminatory and do not make sense.
That was the message Bay State Realtors shared with lawmakers last week at their annual lobby day.
The Legislature is considering two bills for real estate transfer taxes on Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket. The islands want to use the fees to establish funds for the creation of affordable housing.
Realtors argue that it’s unfair to single out home sellers with a tax that’s supposed to pay for a community-wide responsibility such as affordable housing.
“What’s being proposed will make a house more expensive so we can provide more affordable housing,” said Sen. Richard Tisei, who addressed about 400 Realtors gathered at the State House.
Tisei, the Massachusetts Senate minority leader and owner of a real estate company in Lynnfield, said homeowners are already saddled with high homeowners insurance costs, property taxes and utility bills.
“I just think really creating a new tax, a sales tax on homes, is like throwing ice water on the economy because real estate is such an important part of the economy here in Massa-chusetts,” Tisei told Banker & Tradesman. “I think the Legislature is very sensitive right now about increasing taxes of any kind given the cost of gasoline, the cost of food, everything’s going up right now.”
Steve Ryan, government affairs director for the Massachusetts Association of Realtors, said transfer taxes are an unstable revenue source because home sales fluctuate from year to year.
“It’s bad tax policy,” he said.
Similar bills were passed by the Senate during the last legislative session, but the House rejected them.
What Global Warming?
Realtors also met with legislators to oppose a section of a Senate energy bill that would require home sellers to perform energy inspections of their homes. Opponents argue man-datory energy audits would be costly and hamper real estate transactions.
A conference committee is hashing out the differences between the House and Senate versions of the legislation. Tisei said the two sides have worked out a compromise that does not mandate energy inspections. Instead, homebuyers would be notified that they can obtain a free energy audit through their utility company.
“We feel comfortable at this point that it will come out [that] buyers will be notified at the closing that they can do an energy audit, and given the information so that they can do that after they own the house,” Tisei told Banker & Tradesman.
