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Rally Day - What an Experience!

Your Leadership Team along with 30+ GSABA members just returned from Austin where
we participated in the Texas Association of Builders (TAB) statewide Rally Day. I was
proud to be part of the concentrated effort to share our concerns and key housing data
with our elected officials. There are many critical issues facing our industry and our state
association is doing an exceptional job tracking over 1,500 bills this session.
Our state’s population is growing at an unprecedented rate and the demand for
housing continues to grow. Our message was focused on reasonable regulations and
proven market rate approaches. Passing good legislation and defeating bills that have
Jeff Buell unintended consequences is essential to maintaining a housing industry as a leading
President economic driver of our great state.

I wanted to share a few of the key legislative initiatives we focused on at TAB’s Rally Day on Wednesday, March 20 . At the
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top of the priority list was Property Tax Reform. House Bill 2 (HB2) and Senate Bill 2 (SB 2) provide meaningful property tax and
appraisal process relief while protecting the ability of special purpose districts such as Municipal Utility Districts (MUDs) to
continue to fund infrastructure in the future.
Several support bills have been filed to HB 2 and SB 2 and a few of those bills we strongly oppose. House Bill 2915 (HB 2915)
was recently filed to expand the sales tax on labor in residential construction and remodeling. Efforts to expand the sales tax
base to include additional taxes on new and existing home construction, repair or remodeling will negatively affect housing
affordability. Our elected officials were sensitive to this proposed new tax on residential construction.
TAB is monitoring several bills on the agriculture exemption roll back and as an industry, we support bills to reduce the burden
of the agriculture exemption claw-back tax on builders, developer and property owners.

We also support legislation targeted at curbing code adoption practices and development requirements by municipalities
mandating certain building products, which effectively result in the prohibition of approved products that meet or exceed
industry standards and building code requirements.

The Texas Constitution requires that municipal building permit fees are calculated using the valuation of construction projects
for municipal building permit and inspection fees. As an association, we are in strong support of this practice.
We also support consistent and straight forward employment regulations so that the employee-employer relationship and
the employment policies adopted continue to make Texas the best state to do business in. Having the mandatory sick pay
ordinance, which many business owners feel is unconstitutional, really does go too far.
As you can see, the 86 Legislative Session is in full swing and your Government Relations Team will continue to fight for our
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industry. Housing affordability is critical to Texas citizens. The Real Estate Center at Texas A & M University has estimated that
for every $1,000 increase in the cost of an average-priced home in Texas, roughly 22,000 households are priced out of the
market.

Texas is the 8th fastest-growing state in the U.S. The Texas State Demographer’s annual report showed our population
increased in 2018 by 1.3% or by 379,128 residents. We must all fight for homeownership!
Thank you for being a member of the Greater San Antonio Builders Association. Please don’t hesitate to call on me if I can be
of assistance to you in the future.
Sincerely,

6 APRIL 2019 | GREATER SAN ANTONIO BUILDERS ASSOCIATION