With only three weeks left in the legislative session, long hours and marathon floor sessions have become the norm. 

Housing advocacy efforts continue at full speed. Thank you to all who responded to our campaign to send messages to lawmakers in support of the affordable #HousingTaxCredit (SF404/HF1156). Together, we sent almost 650 messages! With more than 157,000 impressions on Facebook, the effort helped bring major visibility to a proven tool to address our housing need! 

The Senate Tax omnibus bill was released this week, and it did not include the affordable #HousingTaxCredit (SF404). However, the bill did include funds for affordable homeownership, an effort endorsed by Homes for All coalition. The measure directs annual growth in the mortgage registry and deed taxes – up to $4 million annually – to an affordable home ownership program. The Senate bill also adjusted the classification rate for 4d properties to 0.25 percent.

Both the House and Senate are debating omnibus bills in long floor sessions, with the House taking up the Agriculture, Rural Development, and Housing Finance omnibus bill this morning. Speeding legislators along are new deadlines set through an agreement by the Governor and leadership from the House and Senate. These include:  

• By May 1, the House and Senate will pass all major finance bills off of their respective floors and leadership will appoint conference committees. 
• By May 6, the governor, Senate majority leader and House speaker will provide fiscal targets to the chairs of conference committees on major finance bills. 
• By May 13, conference committee chairs shall provide completed conference committee reports to the house of origin. 

Follow the progress of conference committees here. 

Finally, we hope you will join us for the Homes for All rally on May 6 at 2pm in the Capitol Rotunda. This will be an important opportunity to show lawmakers the strength of housing advocates! Register here!

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