Residential Dwelling Rentals Bill and Tourism Funding Bills
January 6, 2015
Dear WH&LA Lodging Member:
There are two completely different topics of legislation we would like to update you on today.
Residential Dwelling Rentals
We have waited to update you on AB 583, the Residential Dwelling Rentals Bill, until we had information we can share, as we have been meeting with legislators and negotiating with the bill sponsor for the past three weeks (and yes, some legislators do meet during holiday weeks).
AB 583, pursued primarily by the state realtor's association but also supported by TravelTech - an organization representing Airbnb and other online services - covers two primary components:
- A prohibition that municipalities and counties may not prohibit the rental of "residential dwellings" for more than seven consecutive days, nor may they unreasonably restrict this. The bill does specifically allow for both municipalities and counties to require licensure, inspections, impose fees, the remittance of room tax, and to have nuisance ordinances applying to these rentals however.
- Creation of an exception to state licensing, fees, inspections, and regulations for residential dwellings, with a broad-based definition of what these are that would impact even some currently licensed properties. This is the component WH&LA strongly testified against in both the Assembly and state Senate Committee Hearings in December.
Tomorrow there is an Executive Session by the Assembly Housing and Real Estate Committee, where committee members will vote on a number of bills already having public hearings - such as AB 583. As a major compromise that likely will not be very popular with supporters of the bill, bill sponsor Rep. Scott Allen has drafted an amendment that will be introduced in committee tomorrow that will remove the components listed under #2 above, to address our primary concerns, which is a major concession protecting our industry. Now we must see if the committee will pass the bill with the amendment, and if the Senate committee will concur. We will provide updates in coming days.
Tourism Funding Bills
There are three bills impacting state tourism funding that you should also be aware of:
- SB 483 known as the Creative Economy Grant Program. Originally proposed last session and brought back this session, this bill would establish a new grant program for economic development and creative economies development, which, while a great concept, would commit $500,000 from the current State Tourism Marketing Budget over the next two years.
- AB 512 on the Frank Lloyd Wright Trail. Originally included within the Tourism Budget during Budget deliberations last spring, but removed before passage, this is another great concept that unfortunately also creates another $500,000 earmark within the current State Tourism Marketing Budget.
- LRB-4092/1 is a bill draft being routed by Sen. Alberta Darling that would increase the State Tourism Marketing Budget by $3 million per year over the two-year biennium budget that started last July. The total of $6 million would be an excellent enhancement to the state tourism budget that would allow for increased investment in promoting tourism in our state with a documented payback to the state in tax revenues of $6 for every $1 invested. We just learned of this today and look forward to seeing the proposal move forward. We hope to share more information soon.
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