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Legislative News and Views - Rep. Bob Vogel (R)

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Addressing mandates that drive up housing costs

Friday, February 3, 2017

Dear Neighbor,

Before we get to legislative business, I want to take a moment to thank all those who joined my father, Bill, as he celebrated 70 remarkable years working at our family bank on Wednesday of this week. Yes, you read that correctly: 70 years at the bank and still coming in mostly every day.

Dad returned home from WWII in 1946 and on Feb. 1, 1947 went to work at the bank for his own father, Arnold, a 50-year banker in his own right. Dad has been there ever since and, while not quite on a full schedule these days, he still does audit work and is Chairman Emeritus of the board. I am quite proud of Dad and was so happy to see him enjoying time in the company of friends and family as we commemorated his milestone this week.

Most of our effort in the House at this point of the session remains geared toward making initial progress with bills before the first round of deadlines arrives next month.

Among bills I continue working on is one aimed at making home ownership more affordable by getting a handle on state construction mandates that can drive up building costs by tens of thousands of dollars on even what should be a moderately priced home. That, in turn, makes it hard for first-time home buyers, young families and others to find a home in their comfort zone and prices them out of the market.

Mandates related to energy, plumbing, or heating, and many other areas, have in many cases become cost-prohibitive. Instead of regulators in far-away offices saying what is good for people through prescriptive regulation, it seems to make much more sense to let the prospective home owners work directly with their chosen builder to decide what features suit them best. After all, it’s in the best interest of the builder to do right by their customer because if they don’t they won’t be around long as a company. And, of course, the customer will be the one paying the mortgage so they are certainly going to want the best product they can get for the price they can afford to pay.

To help in finding a way to address the problem I’ve been working with builders and realtors to find common-sense solutions and have now gotten a bill drafted which would restrict new regulations that would add more than 1,000 to the cost of a house.

The approach is similar to a bill I successfully authored to enactment during the last biennium which provided initial progress toward repealing a requirement that fire sprinkler systems be installed in new homes totaling on all floors more than 4,500 square feet. Although in my own home, even as a retired volunteer firefighter, I was always comfortable with the smoke detector standards now being use, it continues to be an option worth exploring. But now, after enactment of my bill, there is a choice vs. a mandate which could have easily added $10,000 or more to the cost of a new home.

I realize that sometimes bills like can become controversial because there are interest groups on all sides of issues in St Paul. But I also feel it’s important to use the experience I’ve had over the years to offer potential solutions for problems which make the everyday lives of people less fruitful than they could be. As always, your thoughts are appreciated.

Sincerely,

Bob