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Senate Co-Sponsorship Memoranda
Senate of Pennsylvania
Session of 2019 - 2020
Regular Session
MEMORANDUM
| Posted: | February 19, 2020 10:22 AM |
|---|---|
| From: | Senator Patrick M. Browne |
| To: | All Senate members |
| Subject: | Exemption of Municipalities from the Fair Credit Extension Uniformity Act |
| In the near future, I intend to introduce legislation that would amend the Fair Credit Extension Uniformity Act to exempt municipalities and authorities from being covered by the law. The law already exempts the Commonwealth and Federal government from being covered by the Act. The FCEUA applies to any organization, including municipalities and school districts, that collects or attempts to collect a tax or assessment owed to a municipality or school district. The legislature enacted Act 18 of 2006, which requires municipalities to maintain a public record of delinquent taxes. By including political subdivisions in the definition of creditor, a municipality will be acting in violation of the FCEUA by communicating with third parties without the prior consent of the consumer. When a title searcher seeks a tax payoff information for a property, they request information from the organization collecting the delinquent taxes for a municipality. This information is public information, but since the municipality is covered by the law, its agents are also covered. Therefore, the delinquent tax collector technically may not provide this information to the title searcher or provide a tax payoff, because it is violation of the Fair Credit Extension Uniformity Act. Exempting municipalities, municipal authorities or other local authorities from this Act will allow delinquent tax collectors to legally provide proper payoff information to a title searcher. In addition, municipalities and authorities collect only taxes and municipal fees. They do not extend credit, therefore, they should not be covered by the Act. |
Introduced as SB1138