ACOW Action Alert

To all Washington State Appraisers:

Please contact the State Senator below TODAY to let them know wording in the House budget bill is incorrect. Voting on this will be this afternoon (due to a glitch with the ACOW servers, this is going out later than hoped for). Do so even if you are NOT in their legislative district. Just click on the e-mail link with their name below, or call their office.

ACOW has received info that the Licensing Fees paid by appraisers could increase – again – unless that provision is stricken from PSHB 1087, the pending 2011-13 budget bill which says:

(1) Pursuant to RCW 43.135.055, the department is authorized to increase fees for collection agencies, cosmetologists, funeral directors, cemeteries, court reporters and appraisers. These increases are necessary to support the expenditures authorized in this section, consistent with RCW 43.24.086.

This provision is in PSHB 1087, on Page 90, in Section 401, lines 12, 13 & 23.

The wording is apparently ‘left over’ from a previous budget bill, included accidentally.

Reminder: we had our license fees increase 30% in the last budget cycle. And…the Appraiser Section budget is not dependent 100% on State General Funds for its operation.

Talking points:

* Please ask legislators to remove the fee increase authorization in the Department of Licensing Appraisal Program [this would be by ‘amending’ the current bill]

* The DOL did not ask for this increase. I personally spoke to Ralph Birkedahl, Program Manager of the Appraisal Section of DOL last week and he indicated that this was accidentally left over from the last budget (he told me that the person physically drafting (writing) the bill was new and it was accidentally left in there). You can tell them that an ACOW representative spoke to the DOL.

* In 2009, a fee increase was authorized in that biennial budget; appraisal license fees increased 30.2% or $123 to $530 from $407. There is no reason for another increase.

Washington State Senators (Ways & Means Committee)

Ed Murray, Chair (D) 43rd Legislative District (Seattle) 360-786-7626 murray.edward@leg.wa.gov

Joe Zarelli (R) 18th Legislative District (Ridgefield) 360-786-7634 zarelli.joseph@leg.wa.gov

Lisa Brown (D) 3rd Legislative District (Spokane) 360-786-7604 brown.lisa@leg.wa.gov

ACOW's lobbyist sent a memo to the House Committee last week asking for this to be removed from the bill; at this point, we are unsure if that was successful. The house voted for the bill on 4/9 (and passed it) and it was forwarded to the Senate for a vote today! Please contact your senator and ask them to remove it.

Unsure? Click here to Find Your Legislator

Link to the bill: http://leap.leg.wa.gov/leap/Budget/Detail/2011/HOBill0404.pdf

Please Note: due to schedule conflicts, the ACOW meeting has been changed to Monday, 4/18 @ 6:00pm

Justin Slack, SRA
President, Appraisers' Coalition of Washington | ACOW