The GOP may have thought for a moment it finally had the upper hand in the state Legislature last Monday when scores of people wearing the letter ‘R’ on their outfits paraded in an out of lawmakers’ offices. But the ‘R’ didn’t stand for Republican, it stood for Realtor.

Members of the Massachusetts Association of Realtors made their presence felt on Beacon Hill last week as they pushed for the passage of a number of industry-related pieces of legislation currently making their way through the State House.

In addition to convening to discuss legislative issues, Realtors were also confronted with issues of diversity and minority home ownership when they spoke with members of the state’s discrimination and consumers affairs offices.

Speeches by Jennifer Davis Carey, director of the Office of Consumer Affairs and Business Regulation, and Charles E. Walker Jr., chair of the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination, represented a change from Realtor days on Beacon Hill on the past. Traditionally, members of the Legislature addressed the group.

We decided to invite the bureaucratic agencies that we worked closely with, said Fred Meyer, 2000 MAR president. He pointed out that MAR and Consumer Affairs recently began distributing jointly produced brochures on landlord and tenant rights and home ownership. They seemed like the most logical choice.

The appearances by Carey and Walker also come in the aftermath of a report recently issued by Harvard University alleging that minority home buyers continue to be directed toward homes in predominantly minority neighborhoods. Meyer and other MAR officials have criticized the report, maintaining Realtors treat all clients equally.

The Harvard study didn’t ask about the motivation behind why people bought where they did, Meyer said. There’s a myriad of reasons why people buy where they do, whether it’s because they like the neighborhood or they want to be close to family.

In his address, Walker said his office receives few complaints about Realtors in his office, and agents have consistently passed tests MCAD conducts when it sends white and minority testers to agents to see how each is treated.

When we think of Realtors [in our office], we don’t think of discrimination, Walker said. I think of the progress we’ve made.

Your industry has done extremely well … You haven’t been busted [by testers] yet, and I commend you, Walker said, adding that April has been designated Fair Housing Month by Gov. Paul Cellucci.

In his address to the Realtors, MAR Executive Vice President Robert L. Nash stressed the importance of the minority homebuyer. It’s been reported that within the next few years 50 percent of the homebuyers out there are either going to be minority or immigrant homebuyers, he said to the almost exclusively white group. They’re the ones that are going to determine your market.

They are the ones that will determine your course of living over the next several years, he said.

Bills to Watch
While diversity was clearly on the minds of the Realtors, making known the group’s position on a number of pending bills was the priority of the day. Tops on the list for 2000 were supporting the House version of the Community Preservation Act, gaining an increase in the lead paint removal tax credit and establishing escrow dispute resolution for real estate sales and rent escrowing for tenant-landlord conflicts.

MAR urged local lawmakers to reject property transfer taxes as a funding mechanism for the proposed Community Preservation Act, a provision included in the Senate’s version of the bill. The act, which is intended to provide cities and towns with a new revenue source to finance open space protection, historic property preservation and affordable housing projects, is now before a legislative conference committee.

Regarding the lead paint removal tax credit, pending legislation seeks to increase the tax credit afforded to property owners for deleading their homes and apartments from $1,500 per unit to $2,500. While MAR supports an increase, Meyer said he would like to see either a further increase in the credit or a lessening of lead paint regulations.

Fifteen hundred dollars per unit is way too inadequate; raising it to $2,500 is good, but more would help, Meyer said. I’d like to see more lead-safe regulations, not lead-free. Instead of removing all of the paint, it might be better not to disturb it and leave it alone.

Most children don’t go around gnawing on the woodwork if they’re being supervised, Meyer added.

The Escrow Dispute Resolution bill would clarify an escrow agent’s responsibility to customers and clients when a property sale falls through and both sides demand the deposit. The bill states that if the broker continued to hold the deposit, he or she will not be subject to a lawsuit by either party. The bill was sent to a third reading in the Senate.

The rent escrow bill, currently in study, would place rent normally withheld during a dispute into an escrow account until the dispute is adjudicated. It’s very very difficult to get [the Legislature] moving on this, Nash said.

Meyer, Nash and other top MAR officials met with House Speaker Thomas Finneran, D-Mattapan, on Monday to discuss the bills. He agrees with us on the House version of the CPA without the transfer tax, and he saw the reasonableness of the rent escrow bill, Meyer said.

He also sees the need for increasing the lead paint tax credit, he said. Meyer added that he felt optimistic about the passage of MAR-supported bills this year.

Repeated calls to Finneran’s office for comment were not returned by Banker & Tradesman’s press deadline.

Among other legislative measures addressing growth and future development in the Bay State, local real estate professionals expressed support for a bill that would increase creation of cluster developments, and offered general support for provisions in the Sustainable Development Act that would encourage coordinated land-use planning policies across the commonwealth, including the creation or upgrade of local master plans. In addition, they outlined their opposition to a proposed mansionization bill that would allow communities to prohibit the tear-down and replacement of smaller homes with larger homes through the expansion of zoning restrictions under Chapter 40 A of the state laws.