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-------- Original Message --------
Subject: State of Emergency: Largest Mobilization
in United States History
Date: Wed, 11 Feb 2009 08:11:36 -0800
From: "Stephen M. Apatow" <s.m.apatow@humanitarian.net>
To: Emergency Food and Shelter National Board
Program <efsp.email@uwa.unitedway.org>
On 5 February 2009 on a CNBC interview, Governor Jennifer Granholm
emphasized the severity of the immediate crisis that is escalating by the
hour in the State of Michigan. This is the scenario that exists in
all 50 states, prompting the call for actions appropriate for our current
state of emergency that exists on the household, municipal and state
levels.
Local crisis hot lines are lighting up with calls from
people in desperate financial straits. "I hear our crisis-line specialists
say they've had more people calling in with worries about jobs, housing,
money," she said. "It's not just, 'I don't have a job,' it's 'I don't have
a job, I can't pay my bills, I don't know what I'm going to do.'"
-- Tough times spur more calls to crisis hot lines: Pittsburg
Tribune-Review, 31 January 2009.
We must mobilize in the same way we do following the passage of the
Category 5 Hurricane.
The largest grassroots mobilization in U.S. history
On 29 January 2009, I set forward a national appeal for action
in all 50 states to address the damage caused by predatory lending, mortgage
and appraisal fraud. The appeal went to the Emergency Food and Shelter
National Board Program, in an effort to establish a foundation for action
on the grassroots level in every community across America.
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Municipal Tax Reappraisal: Guidance & Implementation
[Edited]
Date: Thu, 29 Jan 2009 09:21:36 -0800
From: "Stephen M. Apatow" <s.m.apatow@humanitarian.net>
To: Emergency Food and Shelter National Board
Program <efsp.email@uwa.unitedway.org>
Dear Emergency Food and Shelter National Board
Directorate:
Across the United States, the crisis on the grassroots household
level continues to escalate, as we face an economic emergency without
the protections of a federal disaster declaration.
One of the most significant variables that have severely impacted
families has been property tax reappraisals by municipalities, completed
at the height of the bubble, despite national efforts to stop these activities.
Having facilitated these discussions and requests for regulatory
action to prevent predatory lending (Communities In Crisis) mortgage and appraisal fraud
(since shortly after the Year 2000 conversion), I have watched this variable
spiral out of control contributing to devastation of the global financial
system.
With a sharp nod, Robert Parkin bids $500,000 at the
auction of a brick colonial house in Upper Marlboro, Maryland, that
the builder once valued at $1.1 million. --
Fannie Mae Foreclosure Sale
at 50 Cents on $1 Shows Price Reset, Bloomberg, 28 January
2009.
In many states, property owners, who had their tax reappraisals
completed at the height of the bubble, are now being told that they
are only able to refinance at today's fair market value, which in some
cases is half of the hyperinflated municipal valuation. This discrepancy
needs to be addressed through emergency measures to:
1. Coordinate an immediate reappraisal of homes based
on today's fair market value, to facilitate an appropriate tax rate for
2009.
2. To the extent that a hyperinflated valuation was exploited
during 2008, a reappraisal for that period completed with a tax rebate
for the overcharge.
Implementation of these emergency measures in every state where
this variable presents a challenge, must be met with federal assistance
for municipalities and states that are in the process of restructuring
(hyperinflated budgets: 2000-2009) outside of the bankruptcy courts.
####
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