What keeps you up at night? Lack of housing inventory? Extremely high property taxes? NIMBYs crushing your development plans? Waiting to hear back from the Department of Safety and Professional Services (DSPS)?
If one or even all these issues
keep you up at night, you can’t miss REALTOR® & Government Day (RGD) in Madison on April 26, 2023.
Is RGD about politics?
No. RGD is about policy. It’s about policy that changes the landscape of your business, your transactions and private property rights. RGD is all about your business, your clients, your customers and real estate.
Regardless of political affiliation,
or lack thereof, Wisconsin REALTORS® have come together one day every year, for more than 40 years, in the state Capitol to lobby on issues that impact your business and real estate.
At RGD, it’s about being a REALTOR® and about finding legislative changes that can help get you a better night’s sleep.
Why should you attend RGD?
RGD gives you the unique chance to speak directly with your lawmakers and advocate for issues impacting the real estate industry. As a practicing REALTOR®, you live with these issues every single day. You hear and feel the frustration from
your clients and customers about the hurdles they may face from regulatory limitations, such as the lack of inventory or overwhelmingly high property taxes preventing them from being able to afford a property. While the WRA advocacy team can convey
the same story to lawmakers, the way you personalize the story because you have lived it is what cuts through the noise for the lawmakers.
What issues will you advocate for this year at RGD?
At every RGD, the WRA advocacy team arms you with information and hard-copy materials during the live briefing to help you understand the issues you’ll lobby for at the Capitol. Your job at RGD is to tell the story. Tell the lawmaker about a client, a
customer, a transaction or your business, how they were impacted, and how the legislation could help.
Every odd-numbered year, the state passes a budget to fund the state for the next two years. Therefore, this year’s RGD is a combination
of the WRA’s priorities relating to the budget as well as legislation.
The following are brief overviews of some issues you likely will lobby for with your legislators at the 2023 RGD to help provide you a better night’s rest.
Workforce housing
Wisconsin employers are having difficulty recruiting workers to fill thousands of job openings due to a historic shortage of affordable housing options for workers. With statewide housing inventory at historic lows, median home prices continuing to rise
and apartment rent increases outpacing wage growth, Wisconsin has a major workforce housing shortage problem.
The WRA is pursuing different solutions to create more housing by addressing both NIMBYs and financing tools.
1. NIMBY opposition
One of the biggest barriers to new home building in communities is the opposition from existing residents who complain “not in my backyard” (NIMBY) about the development. Regardless of what new development is being proposed, someone in the community is
bound to object.
Communities often spend years and thousands of dollars on outside consultants, public hearings and staff time in order to develop a comprehensive plan to guide future development in the community, only to ignore the plan
due to public opposition when a developer actually tries to build the type of housing specified in the plan.
The list of reasons for NIMBY opposition is long and may include the loss of open space, increased density, traffic, overcrowding
in schools, neighborhood character, property tax increases or just change in general.
While developers are often the targets of NIMBYs, the victims of “NIBMYism” generally are those who would potentially occupy these new homes. By opposing
the development of new housing, NIMBYs limit the supply of housing necessary to meet demand, causing prices to increase further. In addition, when people can’t afford to live in the communities in which they work, they are forced to move farther away
to find homes they can afford, consequently putting more cars on the road for longer commutes and creating more wear and tear on our roads, among other things.
The WRA will pursue legislation aimed at limiting the ability of NIMBYs to stop
or delay the development of new housing.
2. Financing tools
With the levels of statewide housing inventory at historic lows and median home prices continuing to rise, Wisconsin has a major workforce housing shortage problem. Employers are often unable to successfully recruit new employees to fill job openings
because affordable and attractive housing options are unavailable. New infrastructure financing tools will help increase the supply of workforce housing to help Wisconsin employers compete in the global marketplace, which will benefit our state and
local economies. New infrastructure and other financing tools will create more workforce housing, which is necessary to attract workers in Wisconsin.
To help increase the supply of workforce housing, the WRA will advocate for legislation
to provide financing tools such as:
A development infrastructure loan program at the state level to fund infrastructure, such as streets, water, sewer and sidewalks, for residential developments.
Provide funding for Wisconsin Housing
and Economic Development Authority (WHEDA) workforce housing rehabilitation loans to make low-interest or no-interest rehabilitation loans to update Wisconsin’s older housing stock.
Create a main street residential housing rehab loan program
that reduces the local regulatory costs related to building workforce housing.
Provide a vacant commercial-to-housing conversion loan program to assist in the development of new and the rehabilitation of existing workforce housing.
Fund
the workforce housing tax credit program for Wisconsin’s low-income housing tax credit program (LIHTC) to promote the development of low-to-middle income housing.
DSPS
Gov. Evers’ 2023-25 state budget proposes to provide $6 million over the next two years for technology infrastructure support for the DSPS and also provides for over 60 positions for license processing, customer service, credentialing, as well as the
expediting of building plans to four weeks and one week for small plan review.
The DSPS regulates and licenses more than 208 different types of credentials, including real estate licensees. The DSPS has issued more than 430,000 Wisconsin
real estate licenses, making the WRA and its members the fourth-largest license holder. With this volume, the WRA is highly invested in making sure the DSPS is responsive, timely and efficient.
For more than a decade, the DSPS has suffered
from lack of technology as well as staffing challenges. The inability to retain staff has eliminated any institutional knowledge necessary to help understand the DSPS’ various stakeholders, such as real estate licensees.
The governor’s budget
offers a financial investment to improve the DSPS user experience for prospective licensees and current licensees. Additionally, the budget creates a private sector solution to ensure greater compliance, better consumer protection and reduce government
costs that would allow education providers, such as the WRA, to certify licensees who complete courses have satisfied state requirements through an assured provider pilot program for REALTORS®’ continuing education.
Property taxes
The 2023-25 state budget proposes to increase property taxes by allowing local governments and technical colleges to increase the levies by the value of net new construction or 2%, whichever is greater. Property taxes affect the affordability of homes
and the profitability of businesses. High property taxes create a barrier to homeownership and job growth in Wisconsin.
Since 2011, Wisconsin has successfully controlled property tax increases by placing strict levy limits on municipalities
and counties. Prior to 2011, property taxes on a typical home increased by approximately 27% in the prior decade, with an annual increase of 5.7%, according to data from the Wisconsin Policy Forum.
For the last decade, Wisconsin lawmakers
have saved Wisconsin property owners more than $3.5 billion by having this strict levy limit in place and allowed control over property tax increases to be in the hands of voters through referenda.
However, even after these measures, property
taxes in Wisconsin remain too high, and Wisconsin relies too heavily on the property tax to fund local units of government. While alternative revenue sources are explored and discussed by the legislature, the local property tax levy limits must remain.
Does RGD really make a difference?
Without a doubt, having hundreds of REALTORS® in the Capitol advocating for issues creates a positive return on the WRA’s legislative priorities.
Over the last 40 years, Wisconsin REALTORS® have advocated for a variety
of issues relating to the Wisconsin state budget, such as opposing the doubling of the Wisconsin transfer tax and supporting a property tax cap.
In the last 10 years alone, the following are just some of the issues that were on the RGD
issues agenda:
- Property taxes
- Condition reports
- Piers
- Right to rent
- Nonconforming structures
- Broker experience requirements
- Appraisal management companies (AMCs)
- Vested rights
- Real estate licensee two-year statute of limitations on liability
- Codifying the Dinger case
- Time of sale requirements
- Broadband expansion
- Housing affordability
- Wetland regulatory reform
- Modernization of landlord tenant laws
- DSPS website upgrades
- Seller surveillance
- Right to place a pier
- Improving inspection reports
- Chasing sales
- Increasing the workforce housing supply
All of these issues were passed into law or defeated, thanks to your involvement at RGD. Visit www.wra.org/priorities to learn more about the WRA’s legislative victories since
2012.
Event details and registration
When you attend RGD, you can let your state lawmakers know what keeps you up at night and impacts your business, your clients and property rights. And after your visit to the Capitol, enjoy complimentary drinks and hors d’oeuvres with your fellow REALTORS®.
Advocating
for policies that impact your business, your clients and property rights. One hour of CE. Free drinks and food. And a solution to those sleepless nights. There’s no better way to spend a day in April!
Finally! One hour CE credit, new for 2023
For the first time ever, attend RGD 2023, complete and pass the exam, and earn one hour of CE credit for the 2023-24 Wisconsin real estate biennium.
Event agenda
- 12:30 p.m. Registration desk open
- 1:00 p.m. Welcome
- 1:15 p.m. Guest speaker (Gov. Evers invited to attend)
- 1:40 p.m. WRA advocacy issues briefing
- 3:00 p.m. Move to Capitol
- 3:15 p.m. Capitol office visits
- 4:30 p.m. Reception
Register for free
www.wra.org/23RGDay