A bill that would have required the state to maintain an online database of foreclosed properties statewide was effectively killed following a conditional veto from Gov. Phil Murphy Monday morning.
Assembly Bill 5000 would have required the Department of Community Affairs to create an online database and interactive map of residential properties under foreclosure, at a price tag of $4 million a year.
Murphy balked at the amount and in his veto statement, saying the price would not be worth what it would provide to state residents.
“Candidly, I am not convinced that the benefit of interactive mapping will justify the cost burden imposed on homeowners needed to implement that requirement,” Murphy said.
“Rather than expending millions of dollars on the creation of a database that will map properties that have already been subject to judgments of foreclosure, my suggested changes revise the legislation to require notice to DCA much earlier in the process,” he added.
His conditional veto calls for a requirement that lenders “provide DCA with the notice of intention to foreclose, along with a detailed description of the property, at the time the lender mails the notice to the homeowner.”
“This avoids much of the technical and administrative costs associated with the bill, while still ensuring the compilation of valuable information,” the governor continued.
A5000 was a key piece of legislation – which the governor did not approve – in the “foreclosure crisis” package of bills he approved late April.
The governor and other proponents said the legislation would help alleviate the effects of foreclosures on homeowners facing the potentially daunting legal proceedings and help the economic revitalization of towns with high foreclosure rates, or “blight.”
