Friday, March 27, 2009

Sheridan Appoints Task Force

Few thoughts...

Assembly Speaker Mike Sheridan is calling together a bipartisan task force of lawmakers and others to study foreclosures in Wisconsin.

Sheridan announced the 22-member task force on Thursday. It includes representatives of the banking and lending industries and community advocacy groups, as well as both Republican and Democratic state representatives.
He said the group will look for ways to address the state’s growing number of foreclosures and how to minimize the impact on families and communities.

The group plans to meet and hold public meetings over the next four months. Sheridan said it will make its recommendations in August.

Sheridan said it is too soon to say whether he would support a mandate on lenders to prevent or delay foreclosures.

1) Typical government response… appoint a task force to give the appearance of actually doing something without actually doing something.

2) A 22 person committee is destined to be dysfunctional. 

3) Sheridan apparently already knows what he wants to do, but knows he will get severe blow-back.  I suspect that this task force is designed to give him cover. 

4) Want to make mortgages even harder to get?  Restrict the banks and mortgage companies from being able to foreclose on delinquent borrowers. 

5) Isn’t the foreclosure issue important enough to get a “Blue Ribbon” task force?  Guess not.

(4) Comments
Posted by Owen at 1810 hrs
Economy + Politics + Politics - Wisconsin

  1. Right on all counts. I would add:

    6) This is a grandstand attempt to pretend or posture to be a “friend of the people.”

    7) Like number 4), want to prolong this crisis, Restrict the banks and mortgage companies from being able to foreclose on delinquent borrowers and keep home values above market level.

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on March 28, 2009 at 0900 hrs


  2. By including “community advocacy groups”, it is clear that the purpose IS to “prevent or delay foreclosures” and to provide cover for more government interference.

    What do we need to study - if people are not paying their mortgages, they lose the properties. Then, they have to find other accommodations, called apartments - or, God forbid, public housing.  There is no right to ownership of property.

    Yes, more foreclosures will result in lower property values, but eventually the market will stabilize. The fact that too many people choose to ignore is that artificial (read: government) factors caused them to be overvalued in the first place.

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on March 28, 2009 at 1422 hrs


  3. And let’s not forget the best part: the Ladies’ Man, Leon Young, is running this whole dog and pony show.  Does that mean he’ll actually have to work, or is someone going to hand him the work and let him take credit for it?

    Posted by Recess Supervisor on March 28, 2009 at 1737 hrs


  4. The task force will do little good until they address the issue of mortgage modification.  People are having trouble making their loan payments, so they are losing their homes.  With a mortgage loan modification, the mortgage lender will restructure the terms of the loan and reduce the homeowner’s monthly payment so they can avoid foreclosure. This way, the banks can still make some money and people don’t get put into the streets.

    Posted by Banks on March 29, 2009 at 1636 hrs


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