Bills to help mobile park residents protect homes advance but funding remains an obstacle for some
Building off of a law passed last year, the Maine Legislature has advanced a number of bills that aim to support mobile home park residents in purchasing their parks.
The Senate voted in favor of two of these bills on Thursday. Others have already passed both chambers but still need to be funded.
'As legislators, we consistently hear that one of the top issues on the minds of Maine people is access to safe, affordable housing,' Sen. Chip Curry (D-Belfast), co-chair of the Housing and Economic Development Committee, said during a press conference following Thursday's votes. 'That's why our committee has been focused on two deeply connected challenges: how to build more housing in Maine, and just as urgently, how to protect the affordable housing we still have. It has become very clear to us that a critical component of this mission is protecting the residents of mobile home parks.'
The upper chamber voted 25-7 on Thursday to pass LD 1145 — after much discussion and a motion to table the measure failed. This bill would give a group of mobile home owners or a mobile home owners' association the right of first refusal to purchase a mobile home park if the owner intends to sell.
'This bill is about giving Mainers a fighting chance, a chance to protect their homes, a chance to protect their communities,' Sen. Tim Nangle (D-Cumberland) said on the floor.
Nangle's father bought a mobile home park in Massachusetts and ran it as a community, with the philosophy 'pay what you can and communicate,' Nangle said.
Since his father died, he and his siblings have tried to keep that spirit alive, however they started getting calls from out-of-state private equity firms recently interested in purchasing. But Massachusetts has a right of first refusal law, so the park residents were afforded the time to purchase the park themselves.
Last session, lawmakers passed a law that requires mobile home park owners to notify residents of their intent to sell and give them at least 60 days to make an offer.
'But it really didn't go far enough,' Nangle said. 'Right now, even if residents organize, raise the money and match or even exceed the offer, they can still be turned away with no explanation. The bill says, if you can match the offer, you have the right to pay.'
The version passed by the Senate was amended to include an emergency preamble, which was the version also passed by the majority of the Housing and Economic Development Committee. If enacted as an emergency, which will require the support of two-thirds of the Legislature, the bill would take effect immediately.
Having the bill take effect sooner would be beneficial for the newly created Friendly Village Cooperative, said cooperative president Dawn Beaulieu, a 30-year resident of the park. Residents formed the cooperative after being notified in March that the park was for sale.
'[We] have since made a counteroffer to purchase the park,' Beaulieu said during the Thursday press conference. 'As of today, we are still waiting for a response to that offer. Our livelihoods should not be in the hands of an out-of-state conglomerate that sees us not as a community, but as an investment. The legislation being considered here in Augusta will help us put our fate in our own hands.'
Whether other related bills become law will likely be a matter of funding priorities.
Both chambers already backed LD 255, which would allocate $3 million in one-time funding to create the manufactured and mobile home park preservation and assistance program to help preserve parks as affordable housing and support residents in purchasing their parks.
However, it now sits on the appropriations table, where bills with fiscal notes that are backed by the full Legislature are placed to vie for remaining funds after the budget is set.
To save affordable housing, states promote resident-owned mobile home parks
Though, the bill could still be funded in the two-year budget addition, which lawmakers have yet to set with less than two weeks remaining until their expected end date.
That's also the case for LD 554, which aims to encourage resident-owned communities through tax deductions. Another bill, LD 1768, which would amend the real estate transfer tax in an effort to protect mobile home parks, has also been backed by both chambers. But it would result in a decrease to state revenue and need a one-time appropriation so it may also land on the table.
On Wednesday, the Senate also passed LD 1016, which would establish the assistance program fund but also a fee to help with ongoing funding. The fee would be paid by certain park buyers equal to $10,000 for each lot in the community.
'I want to be very clear, I have no intention to de-incentivize the purchase of these parks by everyone,' said Sen. Cameron Reny (D-Lincoln), the bill sponsor. 'There are exceptions to this fee to state and municipal housing authorities, for resident owner cooperatives and for smaller businesses and individuals with net worths of less than $50 million.'
However, Sen. Rick Bennett (R-Oxford), who supported the minority committee report recommending against the bill's passage, said he finds some of the carveouts troubling, specifically the one based on net worth.
'It is treating people unfairly based on an arbitrary amount of money that that person or entity owns,' Bennett said. 'I believe this is unconstitutional for that reason, although it's very well intentioned.'
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In one sign that workers remain cautious about labor market conditions, the quits rate, a sign of confidence among workers, moved up to 2.1% from 2% in April. Still, both the hiring and quits rates are hovering near decade lows, reflecting what economists have described as a labor market in "stasis." Read more here. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell has begun speaking about the Fed's policy stance at an ECB forum in Sintra, Portugal, where he said that tariffs are causing the central bank to take its time before cutting interest rates. When asked if the Fed would have cut interest rates by more by now if it weren't for higher tariffs, Powell stated, "I think that's right." "In effect, we went on hold when we saw the size of the tariffs," Powell continued. "Essentially, all inflation forecasts for the United States went up materially as a consequence of the tariffs." Powell noted that the US economy remains healthy overall but that he expects to see the effects of tariffs filter through the economic data in the coming months. In recent days, Powell has faced increased pressure, including in the form of handwritten notes, from President Trump to lower interest rates. "Ignore the tariffs for a second," Powell said of the economy. "Inflation is behaving pretty much exactly as we have expected and hoped that it would. We haven't seen effects much yet from tariffs, and we didn't expect to by now." Watch Powell speak live below: US stocks pulled back from record highs Tuesday morning as President Trump's massive budget bill made its way through the Senate and investors looked for progress on trade talks ahead of the July 9 deadline. The S&P 500 (^GSPC) dropped about 0.3% after closing above 6,200 for the first time on Monday, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) traded roughly flat. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) fell 0.4%, with Tesla (TSLA) stock plummeting more than 7% as CEO Elon Musk's feud with Trump reignited. Nvidia (NVDA) fell 1% and Meta (META) dropped fractionally after the two members of the "Magnificent Seven" hit fresh records the prior day. Tesla (TSLA) stock sank as much as 6% before the market open Tuesday as the feud between CEO Elon Musk and President Trump reignited overnight, with the president once again threatening to cut government subsidies across Elon Musk's businesses, including Tesla and SpaceX ( 'Elon may get more subsidy than any human being in history, by far, and without subsidies, Elon would probably have to close up shop and head back home to South Africa,' Trump wrote on his social media platform Truth Social early Monday. 'No more Rocket launches, Satellites, or Electric Car Production, and our Country would save a FORTUNE. Perhaps we should have DOGE take a good, hard, look at this? BIG MONEY TO BE SAVED!!!' The threats followed Musk's criticism of Trump's "big, beautiful" tax and spending bill over the weekend after the Senate advanced the bill with last-minute additions that would eliminate electric vehicle tax credits, which benefit Tesla customers, earlier than expected and add $1 trillion to the bill's original price tag. Read the full story here. The 10-year Treasury yield (^TNX) fell about 2 basis points to 4.20% on Tuesday — hitting its lowest level in two months — ahead of Fed Chair Jerome Powell's speech today at the ECB forum in Sintra, Portugal. Powell will join a panel of central bankers at the ECB forum to discuss the Federal Reserve's policy stance as pressure from the White House to cut interest rates has ratcheted up. On Monday, Trump sent Powell a signed note that lambasted the Fed chair for not slashing rates. Bloomberg reports: Read more: What is the 10-year Treasury note, and how does it affect your finances? AI chip stocks, including Nvidia (NVDA), fell across the board, and Big Tech names were little changed premarket after an artificial intelligence provision was stripped from President Trump's "big, beautiful bill" overnight. In a middle-of-the-night push to pass the megabill, Senate Republicans dropped the ban on state regulations of AI for a decade, which had gained support in Silicon Valley. The idea appeared to be dead after Sen. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee turned against a compromise plan Monday evening. Yahoo Finance's Ben Werschkul reports: Read more here. From President Trump's tariffs to the Federal Reserve rate cut saga, the US stock market has just completed a roller-coaster first half of the year. The S&P 500 (^GSPC) is up 5% year to date, rebounding from its April slump after Trump's "Liberation Day" tariffs were announced. But what should investors watch for in the second half of 2025? Here's a look at six key questions facing US stock investors at the start of the second half. Reuters reports: Read more here. Yahoo Finance's Hamza Shaban reports in today's Morning Brief: Read more here on how these stocks tell investors about stock trading in 2025. Earnings: Constellation Brands (STZ) Economic data: JOLTS Job Openings (May); ISM manufacturing (June); Construction spending (May); Dallas Fed services activity; S&P Global US manufacturing PMI (June) Here are some of the biggest stories you may have missed overnight and early this morning: Trump repeats Tesla subsidy threat after Musk bashes megabill Senate kills ban on AI regulation as it pulls all-nighter on tax bill Trump pulls back from big trade deals as deadline looms How Boeing, Walmart, and Tesla tell the stock story of 2025 6 questions for US stock investors as 2025's second half begins Homes are taking longer to sell in US market that once flourished Tesla sales drop over 60% in Sweden and Denmark Chinese AI chipmakers plan $1.7B IPOs thanks to US curbs Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Washington Post
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- Washington Post
Senators react to Senate passing Trump tax bill
Politics Senators react to Senate passing Trump tax bill July 1, 2025 | 8:48 PM GMT Senators voted largely along partisan lines, with Vice President JD Vance casting the tie-breaking vote to send Trump's tax bill to the House on July 1.
