At a press conference Wednesday, Soglin chastised Republicans in the state Legislature for continuously preempting local control following Tuesday night's passage of Assembly Bill 583.
Soglin said the bill threatens affordable housing in Madison by opening the floodgates for people to buy properties specifically for use as lucrative short-term rental units through websites such as Airbnb and VRBO (Vacation Rentals by Owner).
Madison has regulated those and similar websites since 2013, when the City Council adopted an ordinance that classifies homes used for short-term rentals as "tourist rooming houses." Under state law, tourist rooming houses must be licensed by a health department and pay room taxes just as hotels and bed and breakfasts do.
Madison's ordinance also requires the rental home be the operator's primary residence and limits the property to 30 days of rental per year if the owner is not occupying the home while it's being rented. Homeowners are exempted from the day limit if they are home at the time of rental.
The bill approved by the Assembly bars any municipality from enacting or enforcing an ordinance that prohibits or regulates the duration or frequency of rental for a residential dwelling for seven consecutive days or longer, according to a Legislative Reference Bureau analysis. A vote for the bill's Senate companion has not been scheduled.
If it's approved, Soglin said, the legislation could drastically reduce available housing in parts of the city.
"That will be a detriment to our residential areas, to our families, to our neighborhoods and businesses as it may change the very nature of certain areas in the city of Madison," Soglin said. "We already saw in San Francisco, the home of Airbnb, what it has done to take out of the marketplace the most affordable housing."
Soglin said the move is part of a trend that includes a 2015 state law that that superseded local rules governing ride-sharing applications such as Uber and Lyft.
"This is part of the trend that we're seeing from the Legislature and the governor, where political ideology is going to trump logic, science, fact or our experience in running a community and managing a city," the mayor said.
Soglin also criticized Republicans for eliminating the state's 39-year-old law that required a 48-hour waiting period for handgun purchases last June in light of the Feb. 2 shooting death of Caroline Nosal on Madison's Far East Side.
Police say Christopher O'Kroley, 26, admitted to shooting and killing the 24-year-old Stoughton woman in the parking lot of the Metro Market where they both used to work, and that it appears he legally bought the handgun used in the killing just a day before.
According to a criminal complaint, O'Kroley blamed Nosal for getting him fired from his job after she complained to management that he was harassing her. The complaint states Nosal had rejected O'Kroley's desire to have a more serious relationship, which upset O'Kroley.
After his arrest, O'Kroley told police he bought the handgun he used to shoot Nosal on Feb. 1, right after he was fired, and that he planned to shoot Nosal that day, but instead decided he needed time to practice with his new gun, the complaint said.
Supporters of the waiting period repeal have said that advances in technology have expedited the background check process, and that the changes have made the longer timeline unnecessary.
But Soglin insinuated that the Nosal's death could have been prevented with another day.
©2016 The Wisconsin State Journal (Madison, Wis.) Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
