OHCS Maximum Admin Fee Bill Is Changing to Reduce Program Impacts.

I noticed that a previously scheduled hearing this week on a OHCS program "sustainability" bill is no longer appearing on the Oregon Legislature's agenda web site.  This is because OHCS is working to rework the bill to reduce the impact on unit production.

Earlier the bill had been changed in General Government Committee from an earlier version; the changed version of HB 2152 is HERE.

On the 4th day of Ways and Means subcommittee budget hearings at the end of March the OHCS Acting Administrator summarized changes that OHCS would like to make to the bill that would lessen the program impacts. On analysis OHCS now says they may need to only increase the max admin fee from 5% to 5.4%. For one of four programs mentioned the expected production reduction would be 2 units, not clear how many units in total this fund provides during the biennium.

I have excerpted a short 3 minute audio of that discussion from that Way and Means hearing and posted it HERE for downloading or listening to on line. OHCS makes it clear in the hearing that the decline in SF loan volume reduces the ability to subsidize other programs and coupled with declining state General fund money this makes it necessary for all programs to be self sustaining.

My understanding also now is that the maximum fee would be specified as part of the legislature's approval of the OHCS budget [and not by state Housing Council administrative action as I earlier reported]. 

Orginally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog. 

Audio: Final Day (4), Oregon Housing and Community Services FY 2011-13 Budget Hearing

Audio HERE is from the final day (March 31st, day 4) of an Oregon Ways and Means Subcommittee On Transportation and Economic Development hearing on the proposed OHCS budget for the upcoming biennium.  

You can stream the file from the web or download it; the hearing runs for 1 hour and 32 minutes and is 65 MB. Comments from 15 members of the public begin at 29 minutes and 45 seconds into the audio.

[Hearing day 3's audio file is posted on the Internet Archive HERE; Hearing day 2's audio file is now linked from blog post HERE; a link from post about Day 1's hearing is HERE].

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog

Audio: Day 3, Oregon Housing and Community Services FY 2011-13 Budget Hearing

This is audio HERE from day 3 of an Oregon Ways and Means Subcommittee On Transportation and Economic Development hearing on the OHCS budget for the upcoming biennium.  

You can stream the file from the web or download it; the hearing runs for 1 hour and 23 minutes and is 58 MB.

Starting at 54 minutes and 50 seconds into the presentation there were 4 public comments, with more scheduled for final hearing session tomorrow.

[Hearing day 2 MP3 audio file is now posted to the Internet Archive HERE; Day 1's hearing is HERE].

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog

Day 2 Audio: OHCS Budget Hearing, Includes a Couple of Hardest Hit Tidbits and Important Discussion on How OHCS Sets Program Priorities.

This is audio from day 2 of Oregon Ways and Means Subcommittee On Transportation and Economic Development hearing on the OHCS budget for the upcoming biennium. [Earlier day 1 hearing post with link to day 1 audio is HERE].

Hearing day 2 MP3 audio file is now posted to the Internet Archive HERE. You can stream the file from the web or download it; the hearing runs for 1 hour and 30  minutes and is 61 MB.

There will be a third hearing tomorrow, and then a 4th hearing on Thursday. There will be some public comment both tomorrow and Thursday. I will try, but no guarantees, that I will be able to record these sessions.

OHCS Program Priorities--How do they Determine?

End of discussion today [about 1 hour 18 minutes into the audio] included important discussion of how OHCS determines program priorities. From one of their budget documents I have reposted you will find detailed discussion AND listing of order of program priorities that begins on page 61 HERE. [Performance measures will be part of discussion tomorrow].

Hardest Hit News Items

Two pieces of information I had not heard before:

1. To date [100+ days after application window closed] 70% of the servicers for the 6,000 accepted applications under the Mortgage Payment Assistance Program have agreed to participate. Staff continuing to work with other servicers to "educate" them as to benefits of participation. [ List of servicers who have agreed to date are HERE].
2. Treasury has [FINALLY] approved Loan Refinancing Assistance Pilot Program for Deschutes and Jackson counties. Contract with Bend contractor being developed with expectation that 66 families a year may be helped. 

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

OHCS 11-13 Governor's Proposed Budget is Incrementally Higher than Current Services Budget.

I recently ran across a document HERE that presents the 2011-2013 current services budget by Oregon state agency.  A recent Oregonian story HERE indicated that the Governor has chosen to ignore the current services budget as it would show a $3.5 billion shortfall compared to the budget he has proposed.

Double Click to Enlarge

In analyzing the OHCS portion of the current services budget compared to the Governor's proposed budget I discovered that the OHCS budget bucks the overall trend and is actually incrementally HIGHER than the published current services estimate.  

Several additional observations (see table pasted above for more detail):

1. The total proposed funding in the Governor's  budget is actually .9% HIGHER ($9,316,539 ) than the current services estimate.
2. The other funds category shows the highest growth (7.9%) above the current services estimate
3. The General Fund category is 9.9% LOWER ($1,051,623) than the current services estimate, and Federal Funds are .1% lower than the current services estimate--all other fund categories are equal or are HIGHER than the current services estimate when compared on a percentage basis (some categories do show minor $$ reductions).
4. Proposed FTE for OHCS are 32.2% (41.2 FTE) ABOVE the current services estimate. This may reflect impact of Hardest Hit staff (although it would seem that some of those FTE costs should have been baked into the legislatively approved 09-11 costs).

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog. 
 

2011-2013 Excel Workbook: $31.3 Billion In State of Oregon Tax Expenditures; Rental Housing Gets 37 Cents Out of Every $100.

The State of Oregon Tax Expenditure report for the coming biennium includes an Excel formatted table that shows projected costs, and more, for each of the 378 State of Oregon tax expenditures. 

In order to create a format that would allow use of filters and a pivot table I made some edits, and also added a column to indicate IF the tax expenditure was related to housing, and if so, whether it was a home ownership or rental housing related item.

The resulting Excel workbook, with 5 worksheets is HERE; take a look at the READ ME tab to see contents and some explanatory notes. (NOTE: This workbook was created in Excel 2007 format.Some users report when they save Excel 2007 files they end up with a compressed .zip file extension. My suggestion is to RIGHT CLICK and save the file to your PC. Then navigate to the file you downloaded and look at its file extension. IF it appears as .ZIP extension, change the .ZIP extension to Excel 2007 extension (.xlsx), and THEN open the file with Excel 2007/2010

Double Click to Enlarge

Several observations:

1. At a time of severe budget pressure for appropriated/General Fund programs, total Oregon tax expenditures are expected to INCREASE by $3.49 BILLION (12.3%) in the coming biennium, reaching a total of $31,339,500,000.
2. Income tax related tax expenditures will account for $12.07 Billion (38.5%) of all expenditures; property tax expenditures will account for $19.11 billion (61%).
3. The 17.8% rate of increase in income tax expenditures is 95% HIGHER than the 9.1% rate of increase for property tax expenditures in the coming biennium. 
4. Remaining tax expenditures of $155 million (less than 1/2 of 1% of total tax expenditures) come from miscellaneous sources including oil, tobacco, and medical provider sources [medical provider tax provides $100 million of this subtotal]. 
5. My earlier post HERE noted that the total for Oregon housing related tax expenditures is projected to be $2.362 Billion; that amounts to 7.5% of all projected 2011-2013 state tax expenditures.
6. As bar graph in this post indicates, for every $100 in State of Oregon tax expenditures, rental housing will receive 37 cents, and home ownership $7.17. This means the rate of Home ownership to rental housing tax expenditure ratio is more than 19 to 1.
7. Home ownership tax expenditures are project to increase at a higher rate (18.9%) than non housing tax expenditures (11.9%), while rental tax expenditures are projected to grow by a much smaller 4.2% 

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

Corrected Super Sunday Post: $2.3 Billion+ in State of Oregon Housing Tax Expenditures, Home Ownership AND Rental , 2011-2013.

Double Click to Enlarge

(Corrected chart and attachment to remove double counted Mobile Park Closure tax expenditure included in rental total) 
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I have prepared the attached table and pie graph HERE (legal size to fit all the data) that shows a breakout of ALL State of Oregon housing related tax expenditures, including both home ownership and rental housing. Table includes a $$ and % comparison of the cost during the current 2009-11 biennium and the upcoming 2011-13 biennium. 

Some observations: 

1. Total 11-13 housing tax expenditures of $2.362 Billion are expected to increase by $362 million (18%)  in the coming biennium.
2. In earlier posts I noted that total Oregon General Fund support for OHCS, for both home ownership and rental housing, was $9.5 million [with a M] in the coming biennium), a decrease of $788,000+ (7.6%).
3. Home ownership tax expenditures will exceed $2.2 Billion in the coming biennium, an INCREASE of $357 million (19%) from the last biennium. 
4. Home ownership will account for 95% of the total of  State of Oregon housing related tax expenditures in 2011-2013.
5. Rental tax expenditures account for 5% of total housing related tax expenditures, and are projected to reach $114.5 million, an INCREASE of $4.6 million (4%)  in the coming biennium. 
6. Housing related tax expenditures that were less than $100k or that had no values are not included in the table.

Early in the week I will ALSO be posting an Excel workbook with ALL 378 State of Oregon tax expenditures, showing the estimated costs for the current and upcoming biennium included.  (Post will include filters and a pivot table, so you can make comparisons in a variety of ways).

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

Cost for 3 Oregon Homeownership Tax Breaks Expected to INCREASE by $333 Million Over Coming Biennium.

In a post earlier, I pointed out that OHCS is projected to received less than $10 million in Oregon General Fund revenue in the coming 2011-2013 biennium. I suggested that readers remember that number for a future post; this is that future post.

I have started to look at Oregon's projected state tax expenditures for the coming biennium.  My initial focus is on the three major home ownership tax expenditures: Capital gains on home sales, the property tax deduction, and the mortgage interest deduction.

The graph and table in the attachment HERE show that while OHCS General Fund support is projected to dip below $10 Million:

• The total revenue loss for these three home ownership tax breaks is projected to exceed $2.2 Billion in the coming biennium. (If you do the math, you will see that these 3 tax breaks are projected to cost 232 times the cost of General Fund support for OHCS). 
• The projected increase in Oregon revenue lost in the coming biennium for these three tax breaks is $333 million (19%) AND
• Since the 2005-2007 biennium the cost of these 3 tax breaks has INCREASED by 55%, or $782 million.

Note that actual expenditure levels could be higher or lower than estimated; unlike housing programs that require an appropriation, there is NO CAP on the actual amount of spending for these home ownership tax breaks.

Editorial Comment: Because Oregon has NO meaningful state General funding of renter assistance programs, the Oregon state funding bias toward home ownership (over rental housing) IMHO clearly exceeds the significant bias at the federal level, where at least there are some direct appropriations for renter related programs like public housing, vouchers, project based vouchers, HOME and CDBG. 

Next week I hope to have a complete report on State of Oregon housing related tax breaks. 

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

2nd Correction-OHCS Budget: An Initial Look Shows General Fund Down to Less than 1% of Budget; Fed Share Up to 29%.

2nd Correction: Found and corrected another "05-07" reference to read "07-09"
Correction: Corrected reference in FTE comparision to "07-09" from erroneous "05-07". 
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I have prepared three tables in a one page analysis of the proposed FY 2011-13 budget for OHCS HERE. 

Some observations:

1. General Funds will make up less than 1% of the OHCS budget; general funds are down 51.2% from 07-09 actuals, and 7.6% from the last legislatively approved budget. General Funds will TOTAL $9.5 million in the upcoming budget. (Keep that figure in mind for a future post).
   
2. Federal funds will increase from 19% of the legislatively approved budget in 09-11 to 29% of the budget in 11-13; federal funds will total $307 million in coming biennium, but will decrease by 21% from $387 million in the 09-11 biennium budget.
3. FTE will increase to 168, an increase of 13% from most recent legislatively approved budget, and up 23% from 07-09 actual costs.  (No doubt this reflects Hardest Hit staff costs).
4. Total funds at $1.053 Billion are down 33% from 05-07 actual costs, and down 49% from 09-11 legislatively approved budget. (This is likely because of drop in bond sales, reflected in the "other funds, unlimited" category).

Feel free to add YOUR observations as comments to this post. 

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.