Lawmakers to disburse part of foreclosure settlement funds next week
A legislative budget panel will meet next week to parcel out $60 million to aid troubled homeowners as part of an agreement between Attorney General Pam Bondi and legislative leaders over how to spend some of a foreclosure fraud settlement with five large banks.
The agenda for next week’s meeting of the Joint Legislative Budget Commission was released Thursday, providing the first breakdown of how the $60 million will be spent. Most of the money, $45 million, will go to the Florida Housing Finance Corp. to help with down payment assistance and housing counseling for eligible homeowners. Bondi’s office will receive $5 million in legal fees, another $5 million will go to the State Courts System to help pay for foreclosure cases, and the remaining $5 million will go to legal aid services throughout the state that counsel foreclosure defendants.
Bondi reached an agreement with House Speaker Will Weatherford and Senate President Don Gaetz in November over how to spend the $300 million that went to the state as part of a multiple-state settlement with Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Citigroup and Ally Financial for rushing foreclosures through the courts with faulty paperwork.
Florida received $8.4 billion of the $25 billion settlement. Under the settlement, $7.6 billion will go directly to affected homeowners for loan modifications and principal reductions, $170 million in cash payments will go to homeowners unfairly foreclosed upon between 2008 and 2011, $309 million will be used to help underwater homeowners refinance their loans and $334 million went to the state in a direct payment — $34 million of which went to state coffers as a civil penalty.
After a dispute with lawmakers, who maintained the state constitution gives the legislative branch sole authority to appropriate funds, Bondi reached an agreement on how to spend the remaining $300 million. Under the agreement, $40 million would go into general revenue as an “additional civil penalty,” $200 million would be appropriated by the Legislature in the upcoming legislative session for the 2013-2014 fiscal year. The remaining $60 million would be allocated by the Joint Legislative Budget Commission and can be used immediately.
Rest here…
Copy of the breakdown below…
http://www.leg.state.fl.us/Data/Committees/Joint/JLBC/Meetings/Packets/011713.pdf
Click to access Long-RangeFinancialOutlook2013-2016.pdf
~
4closureFraud.org
Okay, Blonde Bomber, I’ll be looking for my ‘check in the mail’, right? This is like re-living an episode of “Leave it to Beaver”. It is down right comical on how the state ended up with the majority of the funds….not to the landowners who were robbed, but to government budgets which includes Blonde Bomber’s salary along with all of her minions. So, in essence, the AG’s who signed on to this magical agreement actually were bidding out for themselves. Why haven’t we heard of an accounting for those borrowers who have actually rec’d any of these funds? Are there any? You would think they would be shouting from the rooftops if they did. I have not seen one single post here on this site where any has rec’d these funds and this site has posters from around the entire country. I’m making a CALL OUT…anyone got their fair share yet?