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    Thank you to all of you who supported our continuing efforts with the Transfer Tax Bill. We had two great teams working on this. The first team was your Board of Directors, each of whom had a specific job to do and did it so well. Rarely has a group pulled together so well to do such tedious tasks. They went above and beyond what was expected and defined the concept of team. Special thanks to Ilene Kessler, a Past President who never stops giving. She presented our testimony at the hearing on February 6 and helped coordinate our representation to our county delegation.

    Our second group came from our state Association. Let me personally thank the following people from the Maryland Association of REALTORS^® who worked so diligently with us: Mary Antoun, CEO, Joel Rozner, Lobbyist; Bill Castelli, Government Affairs Director and Susan Mitchell, Political Affairs Director.     For those of you who have never read the Mission Statement of the Maryland Association of REALTORS^®, the one of the core purposes of MAR as well as the National Association of REALTORS^® is to "Promote and preserve the right to own, transfer and use real property." The State Association is working in conjunction with several local associations currently in opposing legislation similar to that in Howard County. That is much of what they do during this legislative session. We thank them for their guidance on this. They have a long history of being the voice of homeownership throughout the state. All of us who enjoy being part of the REALTOR^® organization know that we have no choice as an Association but to take a strong stand on behalf of Howard County homeowners.

    Last month was a tremendous month, legislatively for the National Association of REALTORS^® in their attempt to keep the banks out of real estate. The Bankers were given a huge blow yet in their three-year fight to get into residential brokerage and management. New Treasury Secretary, John Snow, told Congress when submitting his appropriation bill that he wanted to delay finalizing a rule granting real estate powers to the banks. Secretary Snow has said that it is dangerous to give banks these powers because, "What happens if another industry is challenged?" NAR is sponsoring HB 111 and SB 98. These bills, if adopted, will put the banking issue to rest permanently. We will keep you abreast of this issue. Thank you to the team at the National Association of REALTORS^® for safeguarding our industry so diligently.

    If you ever wondered why we need a local, state, and national association, this month's legislative agenda should illustrate it. No one entity can stand-alone. We need "teams" of people working together to accomplish our goals.