HOA lobby puts on the heat in Carson City

With the 2011 Legislature wrapping up and municipal elections at hand, it's time to empty the notebook.

-- Of all the special interests seeking favors in Carson City this spring, none has been more audacious than the homeowner association and HOA management industry.

First, they gave a juice job to a sitting state senator, Democrat Allison Copening of Las Vegas, to guarantee sponsorship of their policy wish list. They threw piles of campaign cash at lawmakers to secure consideration of their bills. Then they hired an army of big-time lobbyists to cover the details and line up the votes for their power-grabbing, self-serving legislation.

As of Friday, their two babies -- Senate Bill 174 and Senate Bill 254 -- were still alive in Carson City and threatening to cause all sorts of problems for homeowners, real estate investors and the brutalized housing market in general.

SB254 would require mediation and arbitration -- at a cost of hundreds of dollars -- for homeowners who lodge complaints against their HOAs. The bill effectively penalizes homeowners who already feel they're being unfairly penalized and harassed by their HOAs.

But that lousy proposal isn't nearly as bad as SB174, which would lock into statute some of the most outrageous collection and lien fees in the state. If a property falls behind on its assessments or doesn't pay fines and the HOA turns the bill over to a collection agency, under SB174 the agency could collect as much as $1,500 in fees -- including a $350 lien release fee -- plus $1,000 in third-party costs, plus $200 for the property management company.

That's $2,700 in penalties for debts that in many cases total just a few hundred dollars. A bill that big can allow HOAs to put distressed homeowners into foreclosure much more quickly than any lender would.

By comparison, the city of Las Vegas charges only $29 for lien releases on past-due sewer bills and Republic Services charges $55 for a lien release on unpaid garbage bills.

"We're in the business of picking up trash, not placing liens on houses and making money on collections," said Bob Coyle, Republic Services vice president of government affairs.

Allowing debt collectors to pocket $1,500 for making a few phone calls and sending out a couple of certified nasty letters, especially in this high-unemployment economy, is a travesty -- especially when you consider that many of the collection agencies used by HOAs are subsidiaries of HOA management companies.

SB174 isn't about keeping HOAs whole when assessments aren't paid. It's about protecting a highly profitable arm of HOA management companies.

Of course, the destitute, foreclosed former homeowner doesn't usually get stuck with these bills. The buyer of the foreclosed property does. And huge liens tend to scare away buyers.

The bill's defenders argue that some collection agencies have attached $5,000 or more in fees to unpaid assessments, and that a $2,700 cap would rein in debt collection abuses. I say a cap that high rewards their bad behavior.

This cash grab is horrible policy -- and worse politics.

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Another bill that has raised a few hackles in Carson City is Assembly Bill 259, which would divert some existing court fees to nonprofit legal aid services.

The prime lobbyist and beneficiary of the bill is Barbara Buckley, the former Assembly speaker who was term-limited out of office last year, and who serves as executive director of the Legal Aid Center of Southern Nevada.

When it comes to social service organizations that deliver bang for the buck, it's hard to top Buckley's organization, which provides a voice for foster kids and plenty of people who lack the resources to protect their own rights.

But Buckley made plenty of enemies on the Republican side during her years in the Democratic leadership. As a result, GOP lawmakers have little interest in voting for the bill.

If AB259 becomes law, it will be a testament to Buckley's power.

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Las Vegas mayoral candidate Chris Giunchigliani is extremely impressive in person. The former assemblywoman and current Clark County commissioner knows everything about everything, from parking meters to liquor licenses, from work cards to intergovernmental relationships.

But Giunchigliani is, at her core, a career politician. And when she gets talking, she can shovel horse manure with the best of them.

During her endorsement interview with the Review-Journal's editorial board, Giunchigliani dismissed previous campaign statements that indicated support for city tax and fee increases, and she distanced herself from her big-spending, tax-hiking, give-the-public-employee-unions-everything-they-want-and-then-some voting record. In doing so, she providing my single favorite quote of the municipal election cycle.

"I believe I am a fiscal conservative," she said with all sincerity.

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Last week's column on the drive at Las Vegas' Staton Elementary School to collect $250,000 in donations to cover expected budget cuts sounded the alarms within the state's education establishment -- and had critics tripping over their own arguments in response.

Their thinking goes like this: More than anything, we want parents to be deeply engaged in their children's education -- but not so engaged that they might be willing to pay out of pocket, beyond their tax bills, to fund it. Because that isn't fair to underachieving schools, which lack the parental involvement we say we desperately want. So just give us higher taxes, and we'll take it from there.

Want to know what's really unfair about education funding? Clark County's underachieving schools already get more money, per student, than high-achieving ones. They get more state tax money, have more special programs, get more in federal grants and subsidies, and most of their students get free breakfast and lunch to boot.

Yet parents at Staton Elementary, which gets less tax money because it performs better, should be discouraged from taxing themselves to make sure they keep what they have?

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The great state budget compromise of 2011 is proof that serious education and collective bargaining reforms have no chance of passing the Nevada Legislature -- ever.

So who's going to step forward with petitions and qualify them for the 2012 ballot?

Glenn Cook (gcook@reviewjournal.com) is a Review-Journal editorial writer.