From our friends at the Manufactured Housing Institute:
HUD’s FY2012 Budget Proposes a 51 Percent Increase in Manufactured Home Fees
On Monday, February 14, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) unveiled its fiscal year 2012 budget, which includes $14 million for the administration of the Manufactured Housing Program.
The budget proposal is $2 million more than the budget in FY2010, and $2 million less than the amount being considered by Congress next week under a Continuing Resolution for the FY2011 budget of the United States.
The proposal is based on an increase of the label fee from $39 to $60 for each transportable unit ($4.8 million in fee income) and $2.2 million in user fees for services rendered under the dispute resolution and installation programs to be administered by HUD in states without their own programs. In addition, HUD is requesting a direct Congressional appropriation of $7 million. HUD says it needs the $7 million in additional funding because fee income, even with a fee increase, is not sufficient to carry out its mandated functions under the program.
HUD’s budget estimates usage of the $14 million as follows:
– $3.7 million in payments to 37 State Administrative Agencies
– $3.3 million in payments to HUD’s monitoring contractor, IBTS for monitoring the performance of manufacturers through oversight of 16 primary inspection agencies and SAA’s
– $.4 million to administer the Manufactured Housing Consensus Committee
– $5.1 million to administer the manufactured home installation program in 19 states without a state administered program, and 27 states without dispute resolution programs
– $1.5 million in other contracts
HUD will need to issue rulemaking in order to increase the fee. MHI will challenge this steep increase – at a time when the industry and our customers can ill afford it.
For more information, MHI members can contact Lois Starkey at lstarkey@mfghome.org or (703) 558-0654.