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| FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE |
| State Rep. Peter J. Daley |
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Governor signs two Daley bills into law
Harrisburg, Nov. 29 – State Rep. Peter J. Daley, D-Washington/Fayette, announced that the governor has signed into law two bills that he introduced during the 2009-10 legislative session.
House Bill 60 will create the affordable housing trust fund, which will enable the Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency to build or rehabilitate and preserve housing for low- to moderate-income people, the elderly and people with disabilities.
"Pennsylvania now joins 38 other states in providing a trust fund for affordable housing," said Daley. "With the holidays and the New Year right around the corner, I believe that this comes at no better time. With more than 90,000 families statewide on various housing authority waiting lists, this is the opportunity that they have been looking for to have a safe, decent, affordable home."
House Bill 60 currently has no appropriations attached, but will rely on the National Housing Trust Fund, which is poised to distribute $1 billion to the states, of which Pennsylvania will receive $35 million.
The governor also signed H.B. 2547, which will eliminate a dual-licensing requirement for manufactured housing.
Daley explained that when the Mortgage Licensing Act (Act 31 of 2009), was enacted to bring Pennsylvania into compliance with the federal SAFE Act, which set minimum standards for the licensing and registration of mortgage loan originators, little discussion took place regarding how the new language would affect retailers selling manufactured housing, who were already licensed under the Motor Vehicle Sales Finance Act.
The MVSFA, which has been in place since 1947, licenses entities such as manufactured housing retailers who engage in activities that involve the financing of titled property. But new and expansive definitional changes to the Mortgage Licensing Act now require companies that finance manufactured housing and mobile homes to hold dual licenses.
"This was duplicitous, costly and unfair," said Daley. "This law eliminates the dual-licensing requirement, allowing business licenses to be retained under the MVSFA. Individual licenses, where employees are engaging in Mortgage-Licensing-Act-regulated activity, will be maintained under the act, keeping Pennsylvania in compliance with the SAFE Act."