Leader Filippi: H7316

The way tax sales work is that initial bidding process I just talked about happens. After a year, the tax sale purchaser can go to court and foreclose the rights of redemption. That means the homeowner is out. They're gone. If in that instance there was an original 100%, there was no bidding, and the rights of redemption were foreclosed, the homeowner gets nothing. Gone. No interest. You're out. But if there had been a bidding war, and let's say a tax sale purchaser only gets a 50% interest in the property, they go to foreclose the rights of redemption, that judge only vests title to 50% of the property interest. When people bid, the homeowner keeps more. When a tax sale purchaser only gets 50% and forecloses the rights of redemption, they're now co-owners with the property owner. We want that. We want that, because then the tax sale purchaser is going to move to sell the property. They're going to get half, and the homeowner is going to get half. What this bill is, it's a special interest piece of legislation to prevent bidding on properties so tax sale purchasers get the 100%, and the property owner is out. They get nothing. This is wrong. We should be encouraging more bidding. We should not be shrinking the bidding pool. This is hurting property owners, benefiting special interest insiders who are at every tax sale. They always get the good properties. I don't know how that happens. Maybe that's a subject for another bill. But something shady goes on with tax sales. This is helping an industry that is hurting people. I want bidding. I want property owners to retain as much of that property as they can who are down on their luck and not able to pay their taxes. This is a bad piece of legislation. This is wrong. You're all going to hear it if you vote this bill. This is wrong.