RACI Newsletter
How Are RPAC Funds Used? (Back)
Published by on Mar 19, 2009
Why are your RPAC committee members always asking you to support and contribute to RPAC? Where does all this money go? Well, here are some answers for those questions that seem to pop up over and over with our new members and sometimes from our veteran members.
RPAC is the REALTORS’® way of getting our voices heard by our legislators. Most of us are too busy with our businesses to spend time calling or visiting our representatives and explaining why we support or do not support proposed legislation. Also, we do not always know positions of candidates and how those will affect our business and our clients. This is how RPAC helps you! The RPAC funds have been used since 1969 to find those pro-REALTOR® candidates and support them in their election efforts. RPAC contributed over $12 million to pro-REALTOR® candidates for Congress during the last federal election.
To provide this service of protecting REALTOR® concerns, it takes money. We have full-time staff at the national and state levels reviewing legislation and petitioning legislators to vote for or against bills based on the effect it will have on your business and clients. RPAC employees get to know the legislators very well. They know which legislators are pro-REALTOR® and will work with them to introduce REALTOR®-friendly legislation or stop legislation that would be harmful to the real estate market. RPAC funds also filter back down to the local levels based on local member participation to RPAC. Local Boards are able to access these funds to support pro-REALTOR® candidates in our local elections. This is why your local RPAC committee members are so persistent in soliciting your support. It is easier to get pro-REALTOR® legislation at higher levels of government if we are doing our part on the local level to get pro-REALTOR® commissioners, mayors, assessors, and other officials elected in our own communities first. With your contributions, RPAC can continue to make strides in:
- Preserving the mortgage interest deductions for homeowners
- Promoting tax relief that benefits the real estate industry
- Improving federal mortgage programs
- Eliminating burdensome regulations that inhibit the real esate market
Your contributions are an investment. If you're not giving your fair share to RPAC, you're not doing all you can to better yourself and your business. Give your fair share today!
Publications, such as Washington Report and Eye on the Hill, are emailed to keep us current on RPAC’s accomplishments and current concerns. Please make time to read these and you will always know what your RPAC is doing for you.