The St. Joseph City Commission remains opposed to a pair of bills in the state Legislature to take local control away when it comes to regulating short term rentals. The House and Senate have both taken testimony in committee hearings on May 18 but neither have passed the bills and sent them to the other chamber. Commissioner Jeff Richards has tried to contact Senator Kim LaSata and Representative Pauline Wendzel but has not gotten a reply.
“One of the issues that we have here on the state level is I think many of the representatives and senators may not have served at the local level,” says Richards. He says that means in many cases, state lawmakers have not studied the long-term impacts of what they’re deciding in Lansing. In addition to him, Commissioner Laura Goos and Mayor Mike Garey have not had their calls to LaSata and Wendzel returned. Garey says a new bill has been introduced in the House.
“The only one who has responded is state Representative Brad Paquette of south county,” says Garey. “He responded back and has pulled his support for the first bill and is looking at the second bill.”
City Manager John Hodgson says it’s not clear exactly what the second bill does different than current law.
