TO: MNAR Brokers and Office Managers
RE: Member Call to Action
The Elimination of the Mortgage Interest Deduction and Property Tax deduction are still limping through the House and moving toward a final vote either Friday or Saturday.At this point we are lobbying House members and telling them why this is a bad idea.At the same time, the House DFL Caucus is lining up votes and indicating that eliminating the Mortgage Interest and Property Tax Deduction will only hurt the rich.In testimony yesterday, they stated that Minnesota can no longer afford giving deductions to multi million dollar mortgages – yet they eliminate it for all taxpayers and replace it with a credit.There is no credit for the property tax deduction.The budget numbers show the plan will save over $500 million on MID and $400 million on the property tax deduction over the biennium (2010/11).When they talk “rich” they mean taxpayers with incomes over $86,673 which is the top 20% in Minnesota.The $900 million plus is being redistributed away from homeowners to fill the budget shortfall.
We have called and sent press releases to the 4 major TV stations, 3 radio and both newspapers.None of the Editorial Boards is touching the story or even running the editorial comment.
Of more concern, we have sent out 3 written pieces, including 2 which included a pre-written letter the member could simply send to their elected official within 15 seconds.So far we have generated only 2,473 responses from our 20,000 membership base.This compared to 12,000 in 2006 when we sent one out on the Deed Tax.We need your assistance in motivating REALTORS® to act quickly on this matter.
Please find a copy of the legislative roster at
We need REALTORS® to call legislators and tell them to against the Elimination of the Mortgage Interest and Property Tax Deductions.”There is no further message or debate that needs to occur.We have additional information on our web site, including links to the bill summary if members are interested. REALTORS® should be contacting their clients as well and letting them know what is happening and how they can help stop this legislation.They could be very strong allies in this battle and many stand to lose the most.
We need REALTORS® to take a stand on this issue and we hope you will let your members know how much we need their support.
http://www.house.leg.state.mn.us/hinfo/leginfo/elecdir08.pdf. We are focusing on the HOUSE of REPRESENTATIVES, especially DFL Legislators.We need 21 DFL members to vote against including the elimination of Mortgage Interest and Property Tax Deduction in the House Tax Bill. This is not a partisan issue ; this is where the votes to pass the bill will need to come from.The House Republicans have been supporting our position, but they do not have enough votes to defeat the measure without having 21 DFL members cross over.
