Creating Influence
Top 10 Reasons

Top 10 Credit Union Lobbying Successes at State Session

This year was a challenging year for anyone at the state Capitol due to the higher level (than normal) fighting between the Senate and House, and most industries saw their key issues fail early in the session. However, it was a very strong year for credit union interests. For a final wrap of the top 45 issues please see the article below, however from a lobbying perspective here were the top 10 wins for credit unions:

1. Personal Liability Level for Board Member and Officers Strengthened: GCUA hit the ground running lobbing for passage of HB 192 (see below) and engage in a multi-industry strategy to defeat steep opposition to the bill. This bill came close to stalling multiple times in the session despite hours of testimony, and through perseverance in the last days of the session it passed. This was a huge win for credit unions as this bill strengthens the protections of board members and officers in the decision-making process. This bill was a unique legislative need for Georgia, as a recent State Supreme Court case decided that the board of directors in Georgia could be held personally liable for ordinary negligence committed in the decision-making process. This bill places the personal liability level back to gross negligence.

2. Reduced Field of Membership Barriers: Georgia credit unions were successful in gaining field of membership enhancements in HB 143 (see below). This bill adds “working” to the eligible criteria for field of membership … if an individual doesn’t live in the approved geographic area, but works there they are eligible. In addition, the bill outlines that businesses headquartered within the field of membership may be eligible to join in the same manner as a “person”. This change was achieved through dialogue with the Department of Banking and Finance and the Credit Union State Law Review Task force during the summer of 2016, the engagement of banking interests to confront concerns head on before the bill’s introduction, and regular lobbying of legislators to keep the provisions.

3. Eased Requirements on Fixed Assets for Credit Unions: Georgia credit unions were also successful in the 2017 session by procuring improvements the law that governs fixed assets/real estate property held by the credit union. This change was another enhancement achieved through the above process for HB 143 between credit unions and the Department of Banking and Finance.

4. Operational Burden with Wire Transfers Adverted: There are wins like those above in bills pushed across the finish line, and defensive wins where the work is to stop an issue. One example of a defensive win was on an attempt to place a fee on all wire transfers originated in the state as a way to generate revenue (see below HB 66 and HB 12). The lobbying began back in the fall to articulate the operational burden this would create, and the disparity between state and federally chartered credit unions. This issue was stopped in 2017.

5. Creating the Window for Audit Flexibility for Smaller Credit Unions: Georgia credit unions were also successful in obtaining (and retaining) language in HB 143 to create flexibility and enhancements in the audit provisions for smaller credit unions by permitting different forms of audits to be held on a case-by-case basis. This issue was one that required testimony and lobbying of key legislators to keep this provision from being stripped out of the bill.

6. Amid a Sea of Tax Bills, Credit Unions Were Protected: There were no less than 150 bills that were directly related to tax policy, and over 110 of these required close monitoring on behalf of credit unions due to potential implications. And amid the large number of hearings on tax reform, reducing tax credits, and looking for other avenues of income for the state … credit unions were protected.

7. Protections Gained for Credit Unions in Firearms Bill: GCUA engaged the firearms industry lobbyist in the off session to ensure that lobbying efforts of GCUA and others last year were not in vain if and when the industry pursued their anti-financial discrimination bill. This equated to no special cause of action language, added amendments to protect credit unions through recognizing the membership constraints, and preemption language so that federal and state charters are at the same level for parity. A mere 25 minutes before a hearing, GCUA learned that an unrelated bill was to be amended with the firearms language (without the amendments), and worked to ensure that the pro-credit union changes were added back.

8. Auto Lending Operations Secured: During the session there were over 20 bills that sought changes that could impact credit union auto lending operations. These ranged from bills surrounding towing issues where GCUA worked to protect notification standards to lienholders, TAVT bill hearings watched to protect credit union operations, electronic titling mandate bills where the legislator was engaged to ensure it did not include credit unions, bills on toll collections that were addressed to ensure that the loan collateral was not impacted, and ignition interlock bills were monitored to protect second chance auto lending programs.

9. Open Door with Power of Attorney Reform: Lobbying is a “year-round” effort, and not one that is limited to the three months of the session. An example of this was the power of attorney reform bill HB 221 (see below). GCUA had held a hike at home meeting with the bill sponsor Rep. Chuck Efstration (R-Dacula) back in the summer of 2016 to create a relationship, and during the meeting he shared that he may look at revamping the power of attorney statue. Throughout his effort in 2017, he worked to ensure that financial institutions accepting power of attorney forms were not placed at a disadvantage nor incur the liability that other interests were seeking to saddle credit unions and others with … something stressed in the hike meeting. Thank you to the hike group for sharing their time and creating this open door.

10. Collateral Damage from GILA/Title Pawn Fight Adverted: At times, a win is not an issue that you work to promote or stop … but rather, being aware of other industries’ legislative fights and lobbying successfully to prevent credit unions from becoming unintended collateral damage. One such effort was during the contentious and high-profile fight between the title pawn industry and the Georgia Industrial Loan Act industry … a fight that carried over onto the below SB 134 in the final week of the session. However, GCUA lobbied to keep SB 134 intact and not damage the ability to pursue the bill again in 2018.

Follow us

Don't be shy, get in touch. We love meeting interesting people and making new friends.