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NAR Encouraged by President’s Health Coverage Provision in State Of The Union

Following the President's State of the Union address, NAR President Pat Vredevoogd Combs welcomed the President's continued attention to the health insurance needs of America's uninsured self-employed. She stated that NAR is "pleased to see that President Bush has made access to affordable coverage a cornerstone of his State of the Union address and his 2007 agenda.” In his address, President Bush reiterated his support for association health plan legislation and proposed changes to the federal tax treatment of health insurance costs in an effort to level the playing field for Americans who purchase health insurance individually vs. those who receive it through an employer.

Currently those individuals who have employer-provided health insurance pay no income or payroll tax on the employer's contribution to the premium costs, even though the health insurance benefit is a form of compensation. When employees pay some or all of their insurance premium, they often are unable to deduct those payments, either because they are made through a special benefit plan that enables them to make the payments with pre-tax dollars or because they are unable satisfy the requirements of the rules for medical expense deductions.

Under the President's proposal, a new deduction for health insurance premiums would be created. Families with health insurance will not pay income or payroll taxes on the first simply exclude $15,000 from their income, even if the employer-paid premium is less than $15,000 ($7500 for a single individual). Employer-paid premium expenses above $15,000 would be treated as taxable income for both income and payroll tax purposes.

NAR has met with Administration officials and has raised with them several questions about the proposal's application to independent contractors and the self-employed. The proposal is still something of a work-in-progress, particularly as it affects this group of workers.

CONTACTS:
Linda Goold
(202) 383-1083

Marcia Salkin
(202) 383-1092

Helen Devlin
(202) 383-7559

NAR Supports Expansion of Farm Credit

Last week NAR, in coalition with the National Association of Home Builders, sent a letter to Congress supporting an amendment to the Farm Credit Act that would increase the population cap to 50,000 for areas that can be served by the Farm Credit System. The Farm Credit System was created over 90 years ago to provide credit to America's farmers and ranchers. While the large majority of their lending is to finance small agricultural businesses, they also make loans to finance home purchases in rural areas. However, the Farm Credit Act limits the populations they can serve to those of 2,500 people or fewer. This limit was set in 1971 and has never been changed, despite dramatic shifts in rural communities. Expanding the cap to 50,000 will allow the Farm Credit System to serve more rural communities, and will provide rural homebuyers with greater access to credit.

CONTACTS
Megan Booth
(202) 383-1222

NAR LEADERSHIP TEAM SETS 2007 FEDERAL POLICY AGENDA

Developing the 2007 REALTOR® Party Policy Agenda:

Earlier this year the NAR Research staff polled more than 13,000 REALTOR® Members, Association Executives and industry leaders to determine which federal policy issues were considered to be of paramount importance in 2007.

During the January Government Affairs Meetings, REALTOR® members engaged in a spirited discussion at the Town Hall meeting, moderated by Dale Stinton, NAR’s Chief Executive Officer, identified and prioritized public policy issues, reviewed the polling results and developed the 2007 federal policy agenda.

The NAR 2007 Leadership Team approved the 2007 federal policy agenda at the recently completed Winter Meetings. (cont...)

THREE PRINCIPLE AREAS OF FOCUS

While a vibrant real estate industry is essential to the overall health of the economy of the United States, sound public policies designed to ensure that vibrancy are not a forgone conclusion.  Enacting sound public policy requires Congressional allies and an aggressive advocacy for REALTOR® Party Issues.  Fortunately, NAR has both. Our REALTOR® Party Champions understand importance of the real estate industry to the national economy and the importance of homeownership to building strong and stable communities.  Working with our REALTOR® Party Champions, NAR is focusing our federal policy advocacy resources on three broad topics: creating affordable housing opportunities, protecting consumers in the real estate transaction and enacting health care insurance legislation.  Throughout the 110th Congress, the issues presented below will remain NAR’s top priorities. 

CREATING AFFORDABLE HOUSING OPPORTUNITIES

• Reform the FHA Single-Family Mortgage Insurance Program to give FHA the flexibility to reach more low- and moderate-income borrowers.
• Increase the FHA single-family and GSE conforming loan limits to better reflect home price appreciation.
• Support creation of a GSE affordable housing fund financed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
• Support creation of an affordable housing tax credit to increase the supply of affordable housing available for purchase.
• Support alternative ways to assess the credit-worthiness of potential homebuyers.

PROTECTING CONSUMERS IN THE REAL ESTATE TRANSACTION

• Permanently bar the mixing of banking and commerce.
• Support strong anti-predatory lending legislation and regulations and oppose preemption of state predatory lending laws.
• Preserve favorable real estate tax policies that support housing opportunities and homeownership

• Support the preservation of the mortgage interest deduction and the state and local property taxes deduction.
• Retaining the current law treatment of Section 1031 like-kind exchanges.
• Retaining the capital gains $500,000 exclusion on principal residences.

• Support the consistent and ongoing availability and affordability of residential and commercial property insurance

• Support continued funding for updating of the National Flood Insurance Program’s (NFIP) flood maps.
• Support reform of the NFIP to ensure its efficiency and effectiveness.
• Support the availability and affordability of insurance in disaster prone areas.
• Support the permanent availability of terrorism insurance coverage for commercial and multifamily properties.

ENACTING HEALTH CARE INSURANCE LEGISLATION

Seek enactment of legislation that would make affordable health insurance available to self employed Realtor members and firm employees.

Source:   NAR EYE ON THE HILL by Jerry Giovaniello, Chief Lobbyist & Senior Vice President of Government Affairs

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