Republican State Sen. Roy Ashburn, aiming to repeat last year's midnight-hour passage of homebuyer tax credits as part of a $42 billion budget-cutting agreement, introduced new legislation Monday to give $10,000 credits to another 20,000 homebuyers.
With lawmakers facing votes to close the first half of a $19 billion state budget gap within weeks, the Bakersfield senator said he'll press to make buyer tax credits part of any new budget deal that needs Republican votes.
A year ago, Ashburn provided one of three Republican votes to close a budget deficit. In return, he said, "That (tax credit) was one of the things I was able to get."
The credits proved more popular than expected. They ran out in four months after being claimed by 10,659 buyers of new homes in California. Roseville and Sacramento were among top cities claiming the credits.
Ashburn's new legislation is also a special-session budget bill, Senate Bill 8X 21. It is identical to a $200 million home buyer tax credit proposal made by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in his Jan. 6 State of the State address. The governor touted it as a job creation strategy.
The bill would offer individual $10,000 tax credits to 10,000 qualified buyers of new unoccupied homes. Another 10,000 first-time buyers of existing homes would get the $10,000 tax credits. First-time buyers could combine the state tax break with an $8,000 federal tax credit that expires April 30.
Normally, a Republican lawmaker's proposal might stand little chance of passage. But ruling Democrats will need a handful of Republican budget votes – and need concessions to win them.
Last year Democrats handily supported the homebuyer tax credits, even as some economists said such credits provide little economic stimulus. Other critics said the credits encourage unnecessary construction in a state awash in vacant homes.
Democrats have their own homebuyer tax credit bill in the mix. Assembly Bill 765, by Assemblywoman Anna Caballero, D-Salinas, would offer the original tax credit to 4,300 more buyers of new homes.
Last summer, the state Franchise Tax Board ruled that $30 million in money left over from the first credit could be used to extend the benefit to additional homebuyers. The money remained because the complicated formula for determining the credit left most of them claiming about $7,000, rather than $10,000.
But bills to reauthorize the program failed as lawmakers focused on water legislation.
Caballero's chief of staff, William Armstrong, said that AB 765, one of the bills that stalled last year, could be revived.
"If there was an agreement, all they would have to do is amend the bill and pass it to the Assembly," he said.
© Copyright The Sacramento Bee. All rights reserved.
Call The Bee's Jim Wasserman, (916) 321-1102. Read his blog on real estate, Home Front, at www.sacbee.com/blogs.
About Comments
Reader comments on Sacbee.com are the opinions of the writer, not The Sacramento Bee. If you see an objectionable comment, click the "report abuse" button below it. We will delete comments containing inappropriate links, obscenities, hate speech, and personal attacks. Flagrant or repeat violators will be banned. See more about comments here.