With a yawning chasm of a budget deficit and a Governor threatening a special election unless the Legislature deals with such high-profile issues as pension reform, state spending, merit pay for teachers, and reapportionment, there was some thought that fewer bills would be introduced for 2005. Wrong. By the February 22 bill introduction deadline, over 2950 new bills were introduced in the Assembly and Senate. Each bill must be read to evaluate which have potential impact on trustees.

A preliminary assessment suggests that 2005 is likely to be a very busy year legislatively for UTA. In many cases, bills of interest this year will reprise issues which arose last year. For example, a number of bills have been introduced on the subject of homeowner’s assessment lien foreclosures, following Governor Schwarzenegger’s veto of last year’s bill. Senator Denise Ducheny has once again introduced a bill which eliminates foreclosures for delinquencies under $2500, with a variety of other limitations added for good measure. New Assembly Judiciary Committee chair Dave Jones has introduced a bill in this area as well, and a coalition of business groups has introduced a more moderate measure, AB 506, authored by Assembly Member Tim Leslie.

Another issue which will be reprised from 2004 relates to elder abuse. Last year legislation failed passage which would have imposed “mandated reporter” obligations on a wide range of financial services professionals, if they have a reasonable suspicion of financial elder abuse. Criminal penalties were proposed for failing to report. The author of last year’s bill, Assembly Member Lois Wolk, has introduced a similar measure again this year, as has Senator Joe Simitian. Just as with the condo foreclosure issue, business groups are sponsoring a more modest measure to encourage voluntary reporting, without the criminal sanctions.

UTA is once again sponsoring legislation this year as well. AB 885 is the result of the annual UTA “wish-list” process, and is being carried by Assembly Member Rick Keene of Chico. The bill deals with four areas: countywide publication of foreclosure notices, renoticing sales which have become stale, clarifying last known addresses, and exempting trustees from the definition of debt collectors under state law. This bill will begin its legislative journey in the Assembly Judiciary Committee in April.

Although new legislation may or may not be necessary, UTA will also be closely involved with the implementation of last year’s legislation on electronic recording. The Attorney General is beginning to seriously discuss the procedures necessary in the law to enable counties to take advantage of their new “ER” authority. All in all, 2005 will have plenty of issues for trustees, and members should carefully monitor communications from the association as the issues unfold.