Callahan’s Cleveland Diary

As the PD reported Saturday, the Ohio Senate State and Local Government Committee is expected to report its version of SB 353, the proposal to allow counties to create “land banks” to acquire and dispose of vacant foreclosed properties, for a vote by the full Senate Tuesday afternoon.

If this happens as expected, the House will begin consideration of the proposal at a Ways and Means Committee hearing Wednesday morning.  (Technically the bill before the committee will be HB 602, the original House companion to SB 353.)

The House has up to five floor sessions scheduled between Wednesday and adjournment, including three next week, so a Senate vote tomorrow will leave plenty of time for final passage.

As for the first Senate hearing last week, there’s a free bus from Cleveland to the Statehouse Wednesday morning for land bank supporters who want to attend the Way and Means hearing. In the email from Mark Wiseman of the County Foreclosure Prevention Office:

We are trying to have another bus of interested parties go to Columbus to show our support for this bill.  (With thanks to the folks at NPI for footing the bill) The particulars are the same:

Leaving 6:30 a.m. (12/10/08) from the County Administration Bldg
Coffee/snacks on the way down.

We will return after the hearing.  Lunch will be served.  (We will return to Cleveland at about 3:30)

It is probably more important to show the House members how much support there is for the land bank.  So, if you can make it, please considering doing so.

While there has been all kinds of background maneuvering around this bill, little formal opposition has emerged. The Ohio Real Estate Investor’s Association (OREIA), a network of local groups of small real estate players — ranging from inner-city landlords to outight flippers and foreclosure speculators — sent out an outraged email “Alert” on Thursday…

PLEASE FORWARD THIS EMAIL TO ALL YOUR LOCAL MEMBERS!!!!

LAWMAKERS ARE STRIPPING YOUR PRIVATE PROPERTY RIGHTS FROM YOU AS YOU SLEEP!!!!  GOVERNMENT IS GOING INTO IMMEDIATE COMPETITION WITH YOU AS INVESTORS, REHABBERS & HOUSING PROVIDERS.  THEY ARE SOCIALIZING THE ENTIRE HOUSING MARKET!!!

.. and so on.  But so far, none of Columbus’ heavy hitters is fighting to stop the bill… publicly, at least.

State Treasurer and AG-in-waiting Richard Cordray is expected to testify in favor Wednesday.  Interim AG Rodgers also supports it, as do the state organizations of counties and cities.

Strangely, the Strickland Administration has not publicly endorsed the proposal.  Until recently this silence was widely attributed by land bank supporters to Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson’s ambivalence — but Jackson formally endorsed SB 353 two weeks ago.  What’s the Governor waiting for?  Maybe we’ll find out Wednesday.

Update: Another email from Mark Wiseman…

We are postponing the Bus to Columbus for 12/10/08.  Because this Wednesday’s testimony will be much, much shorter than the first Senate hearing, we are going to wait to send the bus when we are assured of having a greater impact.  Right now, we plan on having the Bus some time during the week of 12/15/08.  

This entry was posted on Monday, December 8th, 2008 at 9:10 am and is filed under Foreclosure crisis, Poor Cleveland, Shrinking city. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.