Chippewa County opposes Zillow's ability to lobby state officials. Here's why.
SAULT STE. MARIE — Chippewa County opposes Zillow lobbying in the Michigan House of Representatives.
During a meeting of the Chippewa County Board of Commissioners on June 17 the board voted unanimously to oppose a series of bills from the Michigan House of Representatives.
The board opposes Michigan House bills 4729, 4730, 4731 and 4731 on the reason that private corporations should not benefit financially from public records at the expense of Michigan taxpayers.
Zillow, a for-profit corporation from Seattle is lobbying the Michigan State of Representatives to pass legislature that would require the register of deeds and treasurer offices across the state to provide for-profit corporations of any official records maintained by those offices at a significant discount or for free.
As a result of this, the cost that would normally be associated with requests like this will be paid for by taxpayer money and will result in a loss of revenue for these offices. This would impose restrictions on the register of deeds and treasurers offices and what they can charge out-of-state entities and corporations.
The Chippewa County Board of Commissioners opposes these bills because they will allow for corporations to capitalize on the records to increase profit while increasing the cost to the taxpayer while placing Michigan residents at higher rick of fraud and theft.
"With companies like Zillow if they see an opportunity to get free information from us for profit, it's going to end up costing us more." said commissioner Ted Postula at the county commission meeting.
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The Michigan Association of Counties, Michigan Association of County Treasurers, Michigan Association of County Clerks, Michigan Association of Register of Deeds and the Michigan Municipal League are united with the Chippewa County Board of Commissioners in opposing these bills.
Contact Brendan Wiesner: BWiesner@Sooeveningnews.com.
This article originally appeared on The Sault News: Chippewa County opposes Zillow lobbying
