PA 33 Population Cap on Municipalities Removed With Passage of HB 5248

On Tuesday, the Michigan Senate convened for an action-packed day to move final items of legislation before the conclusion of the 2021-2022 legislative term. Among those bills was HB 5248, sponsored by Representative Steenland.  HB 5248 would eliminate the current 15,500 population cap applied to cities and villages utilizing or seeking to utilize the PA 33 special assessment for police and fire. This change would add a requirement for cities and villages with a  population above 15,500 to first bring the question of raising money by special assessment and the amount of the special assessment to be levied annually, with a majority of electors in the district supporting the special assessment.

The bill passed the House of Representatives in early May 2022 and was brought before the Senate Local Government committee in early November 2022. The Michigan Municipal League offered testimony alongside Representative Steenland in support of the bill, and the City of Roseville also provided testimony.

Limited session days did not allow for a committee vote. Thus, the bill was discharged to the Senate floor on November 29 and was taken up for a vote on the Senate floor the same day. HB 5248 passed with overwhelming support, 31-6-1, and will now go to the Governor’s desk for her signature.

The League has long advocated removing the PA 33 population cap on cities and villages. Legislation to make this change has been introduced but unsuccessful over the last 4 terms. Within the current statute, there is no population cap applied for townships. Most recently, the population cap for cities and villages was extended from 15,000 to 15,500 due to the 2020 Census (HB 4281 from Rep. Garza) . After both the 2010 and 2020 Census counts, the Michigan Legislature was rushed to make adjustments to the statute to accommodate municipalities that stood to immediately lose critical public safety funding. The League was able to point to this occurrence as a clear example of why this change was needed. This fix would address the disincentive for growth that discriminated against cities and villages and ensures the future Census counts did not jeopardize funding for public safety operations. Additionally, this will provide a tool for larger municipalities to seek additional revenue for more reliable services and competitive opportunities for public safety professionals.

Once signed by Governor Whitmer, HB 5248 would incorporate all existing carveouts for communities impacted by population shifts in PA 33.  This will support expanded funding options for local communities, increase available resources, and strengthen collaboration opportunities for critical public safety services.

Herasanna Richards is a legislative associate handling energy, environmental, elections, and external municipal services for the League. She can be reached at hrichards@mml.org or 517-908-0309

Reminder: Live with the League is this Monday at Noon

Our next Live with the League is noon Monday.

As you may have previously read here on Inside 208, the Michigan Legislature had a couple session days this month after not being in session since late June. Both chambers were extremely active, and our Legislative team kept very busy tracking it all.

During the next Live with the League at noon Monday, Oct. 3, our team will break down the latest activity and discuss the topics our members most care about. We will cover the $1 billion budget supplemental approved Wednesday as well as the Senate nearly taking up the short-term rental legislation that we strongly oppose. We also will chat about a proposal for a revenue sharing trust fund that the MML’s John LaMacchia testified on. For additional details about this week’s legislative activity, read this blog post by our own John LaMacchia.

Hope you can make it to the discussion noon Monday, Oct. 3 and please be sure to ask any questions on your mind for our Legislative team! Register for the FREE event here.

UM seeks input on a project to modernize local government financial reporting

The Michigan Municipal League is sharing this at the request of our friends at the Center for Local, State, and Urban Policy (CLOSUP) at University of Michigan. They are looking for input from local government leaders on a new fiscal reporting mechanism. This new system could have a major impact on the reporting done by Michigan’s communities, so your input is vital.

The pilot project involving the University of Michigan and others is exploring whether a new fiscal reporting mechanism for governmental entities can help create transparency—and prevent future financial crises.

CLOSUP, in partnership with the nonprofit standards setting organization XBRL US, seeks input from the public and concerned entities about its proposed digital financial data standards for local governments.

The most important and reliable information for understanding local fiscal health is found in audited Annual Comprehensive Financial Reports (ACFRs). ACFRs are currently provided as PDF documents, which severely limits their accessibility, comparability, and usefulness for many stakeholders. The proposed open standards, based on XBRL (eXtensible Business Reporting Language), create a fully digital human- and machine-readable version of ACFRs in order to better share the information with the public, state and others.

The digital standards, called a taxonomy, also incorporate all concepts needed for the Michigan Form F-65 (Local Unit Fiscal Report), Form 5572 (Retirement System Annual Report), and the Uniform Chart of Accounts. Digitizing this information will allow these reports to be generated automatically from the underlying data rather than manually entered into separate forms.

During the 60-day public review period set to end on Aug. 15, participants are encouraged to review and provide feedback on the proposed taxonomy, which is available online in a downloadable Excel format or in an online viewer. Detailed instructions, FAQs, and examples of XBRL-formatted financial statements are also available on the website.

The pilot project with the city of Flint was made possible through a grant to U-M from the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation. To learn more about the project, please visit: https://closup.umich.edu/research-projects/modernizing-michigan-local-government-fiscal-transparency.

Disabled Vets Exemption Reform Proposal Scheduled for Committee Hearing

The Senate Finance committee has scheduled a hearing next week on two bills that the Municipal League is supporting that would provide much needed relief to local governments and taxing jurisdictions from the costs associated with the current disabled veteran property tax exemption.

Senate Bills 783784 (Sen Jon Bumstead – Newaygo) would change the nature of the current benefit for disabled veterans from being a local property tax exemption whose cost is borne by the local taxing jurisdictions, to a Homestead Property Tax Credit benefit equal to the value of the disabled veterans local property tax liability and paid by the state.

Following the passage of the current exemption at the end of 2013, the original cost estimate to local governments has ballooned from $9.4 million to over $50 million and growing every year.  Confusion over administration and eligibility have lead to numerous attempts to change the current exemption and expand eligibility.  The League and other local government groups have defended against these efforts and pushed for a change to the system that would see the state assume the cost for this benefit.

The bills being considered next week by the Senate Finance committee are the result of years of work and support from the sponsor and other legislators to create a new system that provides the same benefit to veterans that they currently enjoy, but without passing the cost on to local governments.

League members are asked to contact their State Senator and members of the Senate Finance committee and urge them to support this common-sense, bi-partisan reform proposal. You can also send them a letter in support using the League’s Action Center here.

Chris Hackbarth is the League’s director of state & federal affairs. He can be reached at 517-908-0304 and chackbarth@mml.org.

Legislative Session Reaches Mid-Point

The Michigan House and Senate wrapped up their work last week for the calendar year as the mid-point of the current 2021-22 legislative session.  Following the holidays, the legislature will return to session on Wednesday, January 12, 2022 to resume action.  All legislation introduced during 2021 remains eligible for action through the end of 2022.

Year-end legislative activity centered on the book closing supplemental (HB 4398) and the passage of the Economic Development package (SB 769,771 and HB 4082, 5603) that the small taxpayer PPT expansion was tied into (HB 5351).

The book closing supplemental appropriated nearly $850 million between Fiscal Years 20-21 and 21-22 across a variety of state departments.  Of main interest to League members was the appropriation of $140 million in federal emergency rental assistance funds for rental and utility assistance to preserve housing and avoid eviction, almost $200 million in non-discretionary ARPA funds through MDOT for airports and transit agencies with nearly $170 million of that appropriation aimed at the state’s primary airports, and $140 million of FEMA funds to the Michigan State Police for emergency and disaster response and mitigation.

The Economic Development package (SOAR – Strategic Outreach and Attraction Reserve) was signed by the Governor this week and has been outlined as follows:

  • $1 billion for two new MEDC job creation funds to use for cash incentives for large corporations and construction site improvements
  • $409 million in grants for businesses affected by the COVID-19 shut-downs

https://www.bridgemi.com/michigan-government/michigan-legislature-passes-1b-incentive-plan-big-projects-gm

The inclusion of the expansion of the Small Taxpayer Exemption component of the Personal Property Tax reimbursement system was outlined in our Inside 208 blog following the late night action last week and was also discussed on the MIRS News Monday Podcast.  In the Governor and Legislature’s final move to secure the necessary votes for passage of this piece in the Senate, they added $75 million into the funding bill for the SOAR package (Senate Bill 85) to cover the first year’s cost of the expansion (which doesn’t kick in until 2023). The Senate Majority Leader and numerous other legislators made public comments committing to securing a long term reimbursement mechanism and discussions on this replacement will be a top priority for the League in the new year.

Three different supplemental budget proposals also saw action by one chamber during recent weeks.  House Bills 5522, 5523 and SB 565 provide some insights into legislative ARPA spending priorities around public safety, public health investments, and water and sewer infrastructure. These bills will likely form the basis for ongoing ARPA and state GF/GP fund balance spending negotiations that will continue in earnest in the new year.  Our team is heavily engaged, through our coalition efforts, in shaping the spending proposals within these bills and developing additional spending plans outside of these subject areas.

Other year-end legislative action can be headlined for League members by what did not happen.  No further action took place on HB 4722, the short-term rental zoning preemption or on SB 429, the aggregate mining preemption bill.  The legislature also failed to act on an extension for continuing to allow remote meetings under the Open Meetings Act.  As of December 31, 2021, local emergency declarations will no longer be allowed for remote meetings of public bodies under the OMA.  The marijuana caregiver package we are supporting was also held up, pending additional negotiations.

The Legislature did finalize action on Senate Bill 698, that extends the freeze on situs for assessment of equipment being used by remote workers and House Bills 5502-5506 which shifts the personal property tax business filing to a one-time filing with Treasury.  The state-funded cancer presumption for workers compensation was expanded to include part-time, paid on-call, and volunteer firefighters in House Bill 4172. The cost of this expansion will be supported by deposits to the state’s First Responder Presumed Coverage Fund from the state’s internet wagering proceeds.  A five-year extension of the sunset for the Transformational Brownfield program was also sent to the Governor prior to last week’s recess in Senate Bill 671 with League support.

A local fiscal “early warning” proposal was introduced right before the holiday recess.  Senate Bill 780 was introduced alongside a full repeal of the state’s Emergency Manager law.  SB 779 simply repeals all of Act 436 of 2012. The two bills are not tie-barred together but we expect the legislature to begin deliberation on the two proposals in the new year. In discussions with the Department of Treasury and the bill sponsor prior to introduction, we expressed grave concerns with the original approaches outlined in SB 780 and proposed numerous revisions.  We continue to work with the Department and the bill sponsor to ensure local autonomy in fiscal decisions and raise awareness of the broad range of factors outside of a local unit’s control that could contribute to a community’s financial situation and ensure that those factors are acknowledged by any legislation on this topic.

Also introduced last week was the reform of the disabled veteran property tax exemption that the League has been requesting.  Senate Bills 783784 were introduced on December 8th and the proposal would shift the burden of the veteran property tax exemption to the state’s income tax through the Homestead Property Tax credit program.  These bills have 12 bi-partisan Senate sponsors and we will be aggressively advocating for passage of these bills in the coming year.  League members are encouraged to contact their legislators to express support for these bills.

Following their return in January, the legislature will resume action on the remaining ARPA and state budget fund balance spending plans as they prepare for the Governor’s next executive budget recommendation and State of the State speech in late January/early February.

Chris Hackbarth is the League’s director of state & federal affairs. He can be reached at 517-908-0304 and chackbarth@mml.org.

PPT Exemption Expansion Gets Wrapped Into Economic Development Deal

Much of the focus of this final week of legislative session for the calendar year focused on negotiations between the Governor and Legislature on an economic development proposal reacting to Ford Motor Company’s recent decision to locate their new battery/electric vehicle plant in Tennessee.

As a component of the larger package, legislative leadership aggressively pursued a broader-based business tax relief proposal to counter the impression that the economic development package would only help a few, large businesses.  The House, Senate, and Governor came together, despite strong opposition from local governments and other taxing units, to include a major expansion of the Small Taxpayer Exemption portion of the state’s new Personal Property Tax system in the overall package.

Action between the two legislative chambers and the Governor’s office accelerated over the past few days on House Bill 5351, following the bill being reported from the House Tax Policy committee late last week, despite the objections of the League and other local government organizations. While the committee reported the introduced version of HB 5351, which would have simply instituted an annual CPI increase to the current $80,000 True Cash Value (TCV) Small Taxpayer Exemption threshold, the bill was completely altered by the House to double the existing $80,000 threshold to exempt all commercial and industrial personal property owned by a business below $160,000 in TCV. This change by the House was done without providing any replacement revenue to local governments to cover the roughly $50 million ongoing burden the expanded exemption would have cost local communities.

The League and our partners reacted quickly to the House’s action with a coordinated effort to convince the Michigan Senate and the Administration to slow these discussions and consider the impact this cut would have on local finances.  We contacted every Senate office to raise concerns about the state’s inability to properly estimate the cost of the proposed expansion, the lack of urgency to move the bill since the supposed relief to small taxpayers wouldn’t take effect until 2023, spotlighting the complete misperception that this change would help small, main street businesses, and explaining the unintended consequences that this proposal would have on the other parts of the complex personal property tax reimbursement system.  At its core, this expansion perversely serves as a disincentive to local economic development efforts as the cost of this expansion will be paid through a reduction in reimbursement funds for communities that have experienced new investments.

Under pressure to finalize their deal on the overall economic development package, the Governor and legislative leaders ended up agreeing to further expand the Small Taxpayer Exemption threshold up to $180,000 of equipment TCV (more than double the current $80,000 level), but in response to our messaging and League member engagement, $75 million was appropriated to the Local Community Stabilization Authority in Senate Bill 85 to cover the estimated cost of the first year of this expanded exemption.  In addition to this one year of funding support, we secured bipartisan public commitments from legislative leaders to pass a long term funding mechanism to support the ongoing costs of this expansion.

The headline of the Senate Majority Leader’s public statement following passage of the full package read, “Senate Majority Leader Applauds Economic Development Progress, Commits to Long-Term PPT Solution”.

Senator Ruth Johnson (R – 14th District), in a statement on the Senate floor, explained that she had concerns with the cut to local revenue and said the reason for her yes vote was because “I’ve been given a solid commitment that this body and our colleagues in the House will work to address the loss in revenue.”

Senator Jeremy Moss (D – 11th District) continued his staunch defense of local government in his floor speech explaining why he was voting no. “This funding pays for things that we depend on. Our residents who pay taxes depend on police and fire to show up when there is an emergency, so do – I presume – the businesses too, who pay this tax,” Moss said. “By repealing this tax in perpetuity with no replacement to local communities beyond the first year, you are directly defunding the money that goes towards public safety.”

While yesterday’s action did not have the outcome we had worked toward, the Municipal League and our local government partners will work together with our collective memberships to hold the legislature’s and Governor’s feet to the fire to pass an ongoing revenue replacement for this tax cut as soon as possible in the new year. We worked with our partners at the Michigan Association of Counties and the Michigan Townships Association to release this joint statement after the bill passed last night. We encourage all of our communities to remind their State Representatives and Senators of the need to make this a top priority for 2022.

Chris Hackbarth is the League’s director of state & federal affairs. He can be reached at 517-908-0304 and chackbarth@mml.org.

 

 

Tell Your Senators Today to Oppose or Slow Down on Personal Property Tax Bill

The Michigan Municipal League needs your help to oppose a bill related to the personal property tax that could get a vote in the state Senate as early as Tuesday, December 14th. While we prefer you call your state Senators, we’ve also created this sample letter through our Action Center that you can email to them.

House Bill 5351 passed in the House Wednesday and appears to be on a fast-track for a vote in the Senate. The bill would double the small taxpayer personal property tax exemption for small businesses from $80,000 to $160,000. No fiscal analysis of this bill has been done, but best estimates are that this change could cost local governments $40 million to $50 million in anticipated personal property tax revenue.

It is not known how many businesses will be impacted by this, and most importantly the bill DOES NOT provide a revenue replacement to local government.

There is no reason to rush this bill through the legislature because it wouldn’t take effect until Dec. 31, 2022 and wouldn’t lower the personal property tax that commercial and industrial businesses pay until July, 2023.

The League is encouraging state Senators to hold off on voting on this important issue until after the first of the year so that proper time can be spent determining the full economic impact of this legislation. We’re also encouraging legislators to identify an appropriate revenue replacement for this significant cut to local governments to avoid cuts to vital local services.

Here are some talking points to use when discussing this issue with your Senators:

  • The state is sitting on billions of dollars that could help small business immediately so why cut small business taxes that does not provide any financial relief until July of 2023?
  • If this passes, how do you plan to replace the revenue for this significant cut to local governments?
  • What’s the rush? There is no immediate need to do this now and it should be delayed until we know the true impact to local government and small business.
  • Let’s work together to find a solution that immediately helps small business and doesn’t cut local government funding.
  • This legislation is not needed to pass the broader economic development incentive package the legislature is currently considering.

Please contact your Senators today! Call them or send them this letter. Thank you!

Treasury Issues Final Reminder for December 1st Revenue Sharing Certification Submissions

Earlier today, the Michigan Department of Treasury circulated a list of the local units that have not submitted all of the required CVTRS documentation (as of Nov 29th 6:30 PM).

The list can be downloaded here: FY 2022 Missing CVTRS 11-29-21 630PM

Treasury staff emailed all local units early last week reminding them of the 12/1/2021 deadline and called all of the outstanding local units last Wednesday.  Treasury staff were conducting another round of calls Tuesday afternoon.

Cities, villages, townships, and counties are required to submit Form 4886 by 12/1/2021 in order to remain eligible for bi-monthly statutory revenue sharing payments. Late filings will result in forfeited payments.  The full Treasury webpage for City, Village, & Township Revenue Sharing (CVTRS) can be viewed here.

Local units are encouraged to contact Treasury’s revenue sharing staff if they have questions on their certification submission through email TreasRevenueSHaring@michigan.gov or by calling 517-335-7484.

Chris Hackbarth is the League’s director of state & federal affairs. He can be reached at 517-908-0304 and chackbarth@mml.org.

Treasury Announces 2022 Inflation Rate Multiplier

The State Tax Commission announced the 2022 inflation rate multiplier to be used in the capped value formula and for the Headlee Millage Reduction Fraction formula.  For the coming year, that inflation value is set at 3.3%.  This is the highest inflation value since 2009.

According to the Treasury bulletin:

Inflation Rate Multiplier (IRM) Used in the 2022 Capped Value Formula
The inflation rate, expressed as a multiplier, to be used in the 2022 Capped Value Formula is 1.033.
2022 CAPPED VALUE = (2021 Taxable Value – LOSSES) X 1.033 + ADDITIONS
• The formula above does not include 1.05 because the inflation rate multiplier of 1.033
is lower than 1.05.

Inflation Rate Multiplier Used in 2022 “Headlee” Calculations
The inflation rate multiplier of 1.033 shall also be used in the calculation of the 2022
“Headlee” Millage Reduction Fraction required by Michigan Compiled Law (MCL) 211.34d.
The formula for calculating the 2022 “Headlee” Millage Reduction Fraction (MRF) is:
2022 MRF = (2021 Taxable Value – LOSSES) X 1.033
2022 Taxable Value – ADDITIONS

 

Chris Hackbarth is the League’s director of state & federal affairs. He can be reached at 517-908-0304 and chackbarth@mml.org.

Governor Signs State Budget – Local Governments See Numerous Wins

Update: View excel spreadsheet detailing bridge appropriations.

The conference reports on Senate Bill 82 and House Bill 4400 were signed yesterday, one week after the Legislature sent the record-setting state spending plan for Fiscal Year 2021-22 to her desk.  This budget, which takes effect October 1st,  appropriates nearly $70 billion overall with nearly $12 billion from General Fund revenues.  Additionally, the budget agreement includes another $2 billion in spending for the current FY20-21 fiscal year, mainly from available federal stimulus funds.  While most of the revenue for this budget agreement comes from available state revenues, about $700 million of American Rescue Plan Act funds were appropriated to fund additional programs and grants between the current and coming fiscal year.  Beyond this budget, the state still has nearly $5.8 billion in federal ARPA stimulus funds they have yet to appropriate, along with over $2 billion in General Fund balance they have available to spend.  A string of supplemental budget appropriation bills are expected over the course of this fall that will focus these remaining funds into specific topics like water and sewer and economic development.

While the budget agreement represents a significant development from a relationship standpoint between the Governor and Legislature, there were a few areas of disagreement in the budget boilerplate language that the Governor called out in her transmittal letter to the House and Senate, accompanying her signature on the plan.  While few spending lines appear to have been vetoed, the Governor did weigh in on approximately 40 different boilerplate directives that the Legislature had included in the overall budget.  Many of the items she declared “unenforceable” were tied back to concerns about the language violating the separation of powers between the Executive and Legislative branches and issues of amendment by reference.

While the Governor did declare unenforceable a series of references to mask orders related to child care facilities and local public health department orders, she did not weigh in on language that was inserted in every departmental budget section related to prohibiting COVID-19 vaccination requirements.  Language in the General Government budget, which controls spending by the Michigan Department of Treasury for items like revenue sharing (found in Section 225 on page 95 of the conference report) specifically states:

Sec. 225. (1) Any department, agency, board, commission, or public officer that receives funding under part 1 shall not:
(a) Require as a condition of accessing any facility or receiving services that an individual provide proof that he or she has received a COVID-19 vaccine except as provided by federal law or as a condition of receiving federal Medicare or Medicaid funding.
(b) Produce, develop, issue, or require a COVID-19 vaccine passport.
(c) Develop a database or make any existing database publicly available to access an individual’s COVID-19 vaccine status by any person, company, or governmental entity.
(d) Require as a condition of employment that an employee or official provide proof that he or she has received a COVID-19 vaccine. This subdivision does not apply to any hospital, congregate care facility, or other medical facility or any hospital, congregate care facility, or other medical facility operated by a local subdivision that receives federal Medicare or Medicaid funding.
(2) A department, agency, board, commission, or public officer may not subject any individual to any negative employment consequence, retaliation, or retribution because of that individual’s COVID-19 vaccine status.
(3) Subsection (1) does not prohibit any person, department, agency, board, commission, or public officer from transmitting proof of an individual’s COVID-19 vaccine status to any person, company, or governmental entity, so long as the individual provides affirmative consent.
(4) If a department, agency, board, commission, subdivision, or official or public officer is required to establish a vaccine policy due to a federal mandate, it must provide exemptions to any COVID-19 vaccine policy to the following individuals:
(a) An individual for whom a physician certifies that a COVID-19 vaccine is or may be detrimental to the individual’s health or is not appropriate.
(b) An individual who provides a written statement to the effect that the requirements of the COVID-19 vaccine policy cannot be met because of religious convictions or other consistently held objection to immunization.
(5) As used in this section, “public officer” means a person appointed by the governor or another executive department official or an elected or appointed official of this state or a political subdivision of this state.

The Governor’s transmittal letter interprets this language as providing “a roadmap for public employers to ensure their employees either receive the safe and effective COVID-19 vaccine or undergo regular testing to keep their co-workers safe. It also avoids any conflict with federal law, recognizing that federal authorities may issue vaccination requirements.”  This last comment appears to be in reference to forthcoming US Department of Labor rules that would align with the President’s recent call for vaccination or testing requirements for large employers.  This language is still being evaluated, especially in light of the potential costs related to implementing a stringent testing program at the local government level.

When reviewing the 964 page state operating budget document and the related 179 page House Fiscal Agency summary there are a number of key items of interest to municipalities and some significant victories for local government:

Overall, there is a $500 million deposit into the state’s Budget Stabilization Fund

Statutory Revenue Sharing will see a 2% ($5.2M) increase added into the overall base for cities, villages, and townships.

MML advocacy also helped to successfully restore $433,000 for more than 100 local units that were forced to return the federal CARES funding they received in August of 2020 as replacement for the state budget elimination of the August revenue sharing payment last year

Additionally in Treasury, the legislature approved the Governor’s recommendation for a $5M grant program to assist local governments with training and recruitment of first responders.  $3M was included to increase funding for the Michigan Infrastructure Council and $16M was added to fund infrastructure enhancements for E-911 systems.

Key funding items in other state departments:

Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy –

  • $15M for drinking water emergency assistance related to contamination response
  • $14.5M PFAS contamination remediation for water systems
  • $10M contaminated site clean up
  • $10M lead service line replacement and drinking water safety improvements in the City of  Benton Harbor
  • $19M for public and private dam safety and emergency response grants
  • While funding for the Governor’s MI Clean Water Plan was not included in this budget, it is expected that a larger water/sewer/storm water spending plan will be proposed from available ARPA funds this fall.

Labor and Economic Opportunity –

  • $100M of ARP funds for Community Revitalization Program and Placemaking grants to local units (identified blight and historic rehab projects in downtowns and outdoor dining and social district investments)
  • $1.5M increase in arts and culture grants funding
  • $3.5M increase in the Rural Jobs & Capital Investment Fund
  • $48M for 25 targeted local infrastructure grants across the state
  • $147M for 175 distinct local “enhancement grants” in communities statewide

Dept of Technology, Management, & Budget –

  • $20M for Cybersecurity

Dept of Natural Resources –

  • $7M of available federal funds for local recreation lands and facilities through Land & Water Conservation Fund payments

Michigan State Police –

  • $45M of federal funds for disaster and emergency response activities
  • $2M one-time increase to secondary road patrol grants
  • $500,000 to provide de-escalation training for law enforcement officers

MI Dept of Transportation –

  • $52.8M increase to the MTF for local road funding from full implementation of the $600M road plan income tax earmark
  • $12.8M restoration of last year’s cuts to the Transportation Economic Development Fund
  • $3M restoration of last year’s cuts to local bus transit operating support
  • $5.6M increase to state rail programs

Beyond the funding for the coming fiscal year, over $2 billion dollars was added to the current year (FY21) budget

  • $150M ARP deposit into the Unemployment Insurance Trust Fund
  • $168M from GF and Federal funds into the Water State Revolving Funds to fund loan demand for local water pollution control facilities
  • $121M of ARP funds for a Homeowners Assistance Fund within LEO that will support housing needs – includes utility payments and delinquent property taxes
  • $36.3M of federal funding for Low Income Household Water Assistance support through DHHS
  • A series of line items within MDOT from available December 2020 federal stimulus funds –
    • $196M local bridge bundling program – will allow for repair/replacement of 100 local bridges across Michigan. View excel spreadsheet detailing bridge appropriations.
    • $68M for Michigan’s 15 primary airports
    • $2M for Michigan’s general aviation airports
    • $65M for local road & bridge programs
    • $55M for local/rural transit agencies
    • $3.3M for the intercity bus program

With the signing of the budget, leaders will now turn their attention to appropriating the remaining American Rescue Plan dollars, available state General Fund revenues that continue to come in above revenue estimates, and any additional federal revenue that may result from the federal budget reconciliation process and/or the Infrastructure and Jobs Act discussion in Washington, DC.  The League’s State & Federal Affairs team will be extremely active in these upcoming budget discussions, pushing areas of priority for League members, like housing, community development, and additional support for local budgets and services.

Chris Hackbarth is the League’s director of state & federal affairs. He can be reached at 517-908-0304 and chackbarth@mml.org.