As of midnight on Thursday, March 29th the state Legislature has adjourned! From a credit union perspective, it was a successful year that saw the passage of supported issues ranging from credit union charter enhancements, eased requirements in law for credit insurance licensing, and countless negative issues that were amended or abated in the process of the past three months. There were more than 550 bills that were actively addressed and monitored throughout the session to protect and promote credit unions, out of thousands of bills introduced that were analyzed (and several issues that did not get introduced that required work!).
Please note that a final wrap-up of the state Legislature with be provided in the next edition of Creating Influence after analysis is complete, as bills were in play and changing rapidly as late as 11:59 p.m. last night. However, below is some of the activity of note from these final two days (in addition to the passage of the bill containing credit union charter enhancements):
Abandoned Mobile Homes: H.B. 381 by Rep. John Corbett (R-Lake Park) received the final vote on March 29th in the full House with no amendments. This is the legislation that GCUA has been engaged on that seeks to provide property owners a legal method of disposing of abandoned derelict mobile homes that are titled to someone other than the property owner, and has been monitored closely to ensure that proper notice is provided to any lienholder prior to disposal. While the bill seeks to resolve a negative issue, GCUA worked during the hearing process in the House to remove language that could create greater liability for past-due rent once the mobile home is abandoned. The bill now moves forward to the Governor for his consideration, and was monitored through the process to ensure that what passed contains the provisions needed for lienholders.
Boat Titling: H.B. 357 by Rep. Ron Stephens (R-Savannah) sought to institute a boat-titling process in Georgia that would have been managed by the Department of Natural Resources to coincide with the registration process. The bill topic has languished for almost 20 years without moving, as it has not had a warm reception with legislators. Rep. Stephens’ bill passed the full Senate on March 27th but did not clear the last procedural vote in the House on March 29th.
Business Courts: H.R. 993 by Rep. Chuck Efstration (R-Dacula) would provide for the voters to decide if the state should create a separate statewide business court structure for specific complex business cases (not cases against businesses, but cases between businesses). The bill passed the full Senate on March 29th.
Credit Insurance: H.B. 938 by Rep. Darlene Taylor (R-Thomasville) was passed by the full Senate on March 27th; this is the bill that GCUA has worked with the Insurance Commissioner’s office on as it seeks to provide credit unions (and others) a form of regulatory relief with the option to obtain one license for credit insurance sales as opposed to licensing each individual. The bill would require regular education of those individuals tasked with selling the insurance in their roles (five hours initially, and then two hours annually) to ensure that consumer protections are upheld in the event an institution opts to have one overreaching license. GCUA has engaged CUNA Mutual on the bill, and it is intended to make the registration/licensing process less cumbersome on the institution, while ensuring that the individuals receive training. The bill now moves to the Governor for his consideration.
Cybersecurity: One of the cybersecurity bills in the state Legislature, S.B. 315 by Sen. Bruce Thompson (R-White), passed the full House on March 27th and cleared the full Senate for the last procedural vote on March 29th. This bill had been amended last week to ensure that intrusion tests of systems would not be inadvertently wrapped up in the bill, as it seeks to address data breaches by criminalizing the unauthorized access of computer systems. This bill was monitored closely throughout the process to ensure that credit unions were not tasked with unneeded burdens while still protecting data, and that legitimate business activity was not inadvertently wrapped into it.
Hemp Growers Study Committee: On March 23rd the full House passed a study committee resolution, H.R. 1473 by Rep. Tom McCall (R-Elberton), which seeks to hold hearings in the off session on the challenges, problems and moving pieces around farmers growing hemp in Georgia. From a credit union perspective, these hearings on the issue will be monitored from the perspective of what things could or could not be done by financial institutions if the state moves forward.
HOA Charges for Clearance Letters: H.B. 410 by Rep. Alan Powell (R-Hartwell) seeks to regulate what information HOAs share in letters requested for mortgage closings, and what fees could be charged, and has been hotly contested in the process with hours of hearings. There have been multiple versions of the bill, and throughout it has been addressed to ensure that in the process to find a compromise it does not impact the lending operations at credit unions. The version that passed the full House on February 28th had a $250 cap on the fee that HOAs could charge; however, the Senate lowered that fee cap to $100. The bill received the final procedural vote on March 29th, and from a credit union perspective it was important to keep this issue on close watch to ensure that credit union operations are protected, and to ensure that HOA interests did not insert language to supersede the lien status of the lender in the midst of the debate.
Payments Between Insurers and Health Providers: H.B. 818 by Rep. Lee Hawkins (R-Gainesville) passed the full Senate on March 27th. The bill is directed solely at the fees charged between insurance providers and doctors’ offices (and not at consumer transactions). This bill was modified earlier in the legislative process (to the positive) to make it explicitly clear that it is applied to those insurance payments to the provider, and to prevent insurance companies from requiring providers to accept only payment via virtual credit card.
Real Estate Issues – Fulton County: On March 23rd the full Senate passed the substitute version H.B. 1036 by Rep. Chuck Martin (R-Alpharetta) containing the amendment sought by GCUA and others, and passed the full House for the last vote on March 27th. This is the local bill that impacts how titles/deeds are filed in Fulton County. This is a local bill, which means it doesn’t follow the same rules of normal bills, moves quickly without vetting in a committee, and is generally voted on in a “block” of local bills on the floor. However, this bill would alter how any instrument or interest with real property is conveyed in Fulton County (and only Fulton County) and would require that the tax parcel identification numbers (or numbers associated with any or all portions) be printed on the top of the first page of the instrument. This bill would create the unintended consequence of invalidating titles and disrupting mortgage lending (as well as title insurance) for any loan that involves real property in Fulton County. GCUA has been engaged with Rep. Martin, the State Bar and title insurers to secure the amendment to protect the titles from being deemed invalid due to error, and has engaged members of the Senate to ensure that the version they pass is the version with the lending protections.
Real Estate Issues – Taxation: HR 1317 by Rep. Andy Welch (R-McDonough) passed on March 27th, and creates an off-session study committee to hold hearings on how real property is taxed. This will be monitored closely in the months ahead to ensure it does not impact credit unions.
Self-Settled Trusts: H.B. 441 by Rep. Barry Fleming (R-Harlem), which is carried over from last year, seeks to permit a new form of trust account to be offered in Georgia, and is monitored closely to ensure that creditors have the capability to claim on assets that were included in making a decision on a loan (if the assets were placed under the trust afterwards). This bill had been amended in the full Senate earlier in March, was amended again in the full House to remove some of the Senate’s language later, and then received its final procedural vote in the Senate on March 29th. This bill had been watched carefully to ensure that it would not morph into a version of the bill that did not contain the creditor protections.
Tenant Laws: S.B. 443 by Sen. Jesse Stone (R-Waynesboro), which seeks to change tenant laws as they apply to damage and security deposits, was added to H.B. 834 by Rep. Mandi Ballinger (R-Canton) in a hearing earlier in the month and passed the full Senate on March 27th and received the final procedural vote on Marc 29th. Tenant laws have been as frequent as credit reporting fee bills this year, with multiple ones at different stages of the legislative process. All of these tenant bills were monitored to ensure that credit unions are not saddled with regulatory burdens or have their lending operations impacted.
