City Income Tax Communities Oppose Senate Changes

The Michigan Senate voted Tuesday, Dec. 15, 2015, to discharge House Bill 4462 from the Senate Finance committee and then inserted language that many of the 22 income tax communities have weighed in on opposing. Despite the opposition, the Senate passed it late Tuesday night on a vote of 21-17.

The new language added by the Senate would allow a “voluntary” written agreement between an income tax levying city and an owner of property located in the city on behalf of a qualified employer or with a qualified employer who would make an advance payment of the withholding tax that would normally be deducted from employee compensation and remitted to the city, equal to the nonresident rate for the duration of the written agreement.

The Michigan City Income Tax Administrators Association, representing all 22 income tax cities met last week to discuss this proposal and subsequently, the 14 cities who were represented at the meeting passed a unanimous resolution opposing this proposal. Those cities represented at the meeting were: Grand Rapids, Muskegon, Pontiac, Saginaw, Lansing, Springfield, Jackson, Big Rapids, Lapeer, Ionia, Portland, Detroit, Battle Creek and Flint.

Beyond the grave concerns over the administrative burden that this type of concept would place on a city, there were numerous questions raised about the ability to administer such an agreement, where there is no model to follow and no other similar allowance for treatment of income tax and the federal, state, or local level.  Negative consequences for the taxpayer, possible loss of revenue for the city, and an inability to ensure accountability or compliance were among many of the reasons cited in opposition to this idea.

The League is working with these communities to oppose this legislation now that the bill has been returned to the House.

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

Urge Your Representative to Vote NO on HB 5016

Here is an urgent action alert we’ve sent to our members this morning:

We need your help! The Michigan House is currently working on legislation, HB 5016, that could be voted on this week that the Michigan Municipal League strongly opposes. The bill would require municipalities to reimburse a telecommunications provider a portion of relocation costs if a community fails to notify the provider at least one year in advance of a project that will require relocation of their lines.

Additionally, communities will no longer be able to charge for a permit fee, inspection fee, or survey cost, when a relocation is required. The bill also fails to provide any protection to the municipality if the provider installs or relocates their lines in an area other than allowed by the permit or causes construction delays.

If passed, municipalities would be required to pay a private for-profit company for moving their telecommunication lines within the public right-of-way. Communities are already prohibited from denying the telecommunications access to these public spaces they get to occupy for free. This proposed legislation sets a terrible precedent in this state and could lead to other utility providers, i.e. gas and electric companies, to seek the same deal.

Relocation costs can be very expensive. If communities are required to shoulder a portion of those costs it could result in projects being delayed, scaled back, or even eliminated as a result of this unnecessary, one-sided legislation.

The League encourages you to contact your representative TODAY and tell them to oppose HB 5016 and protect our taxpayers from paying these costs. Go here to get the contact info for your legislators.

John LaMacchia is a Legislative Associate for the League handling transportation, infrastructure, and energy issues. He can be reached at jlamacchia@mml.org or 517-908-0303.

House Committee Passes League Supported Rental Inspection Legislation

Today, the House Local Government committee passed out SB 394 (S-2 version: SB 394 S-2), a bill to fold townships into the mix of those local communities who qualify for the Housing Law, clarifies that inspection programs are optional at the local level, and states a rental inspection fee cannot be required to be paid more than 6 months prior to the actual inspection.  The League testified in support of this legislation when it was inSenate committee.

Again, thank you to Sen. Robertson, his staff, Rental Property Owners Association, and Apartment Association of Michigan for working with us on this issue to address our concerns from last session’s legislation.

The legislation now goes to the House.

Nikki Brown is a legislative associate for the League handling economic development, land use, and municipal services issues.  She can be reached at nbrown@mml.org or 517-908-0305.

League, MAC and MTA Issue Joint Statement on Data Center Abatement Proposals

The Michigan House Tax Policy Committee today is reviewing legislative proposals regarding what’s known as the data center issue and the Michigan Municipal League along with other organizations have distributed a joint statement regarding the legislation.

The biggest concern from the League’s perspective is ensuring that local communities continue to have the ability to establish local control on both existing and future abatement requests, like we have for other economic development abatement tools. One proposal being shopped by the existing data center industry would eliminate the current language providing local involvement in future data center investments. The League and other local government groups are opposed to this effort. We feel it is appropriate to maintain local involvement in any decision on whether to abate taxes as an economic development tool.

Here is the full statement on this issue by the League, the Michigan Association of Counties (MAC) and the Michigan Townships Association (MTA):

As the representatives of local government in Michigan, our organizations ― which are responsible for delivering the daily services Michigan residents count on ― wish to clarify our position on the various legislative proposals being discussed for the data center industry, especially those surrounding exemptions for personal property.

Local governments welcome economic development/job creation in this state and our goal is to continue to partner with the state.

If the Legislature and administration believe exemptions for existing firms and their existing equipment in a broad-based personal property exemption framework are necessary, we recommend the exemption for current equipment follow the recently adopted system for small taxpayers and manufacturers, allowing the local units to be fully reimbursed for the reductions to their tax base.

In our view, though, a blanket, state-ordered exemption would be counterproductive, given the existing economic development tools available to reduce/abate personal property for business, including data centers.

Absent a reimbursement mechanism, language similar to what the House and Senate are considering, which allows for a local unit to approve/deny a request for an abatement of data center personal property, is vital. Allowing local governments to be involved in this way ensures they are able to evaluate the local budget costs against the benefits of proposed exemptions, just as they do with all other economic development decisions.

Adoption of one of these approaches will protect existing local government budgets and preserve the role of the local unit in these critical local economic development decisions.
Thank you for your consideration. We welcome the opportunity to discuss further should you have any questions.

– Chris Hackbarth, Director of State Affairs for the Michigan Municipal League
– Judy Allen, Director of Government Relations for the Michigan Townships Association
– Steve Currie, Deputy Director for the Michigan Association of Counties

Posted by Matt Bach on behalf of Chris Hackbarth. For more information contact Hackbarth at chackbarth@mml.org and 517-908-0304.

New Federal Transportation Bill, FAST Act, Becomes Law

President Obama signed the FAST (Fixing America’s Surface Transportation) Act yesterday, making the first long term transportation bill in a decade official. There are some big wins for local governments within the new law, which is worth approximately $305 billion. A good, comprehensive 13 page summary of the law can be found here.

The biggest win for local communities, quite simply, is that it is a 5 year arrangement and local leaders will not have to wonder what will happen every six months under more extensions. The League had been advocating first and foremost for a bill that expands beyond the next fiscal year to enable more long-term planning for transportation projects. Specifically, there are many other significant victories being highlighted in the bill, which spans 1300 pages.

The Surface Transportation Program is now the Surface Transportation Block Grant Program and increases the amount allocated to local leaders from 50% to 55% over the length of the bill and gives locals greater flexibility in how the funds are spent.

The Surface Transportation Block Grant Program would now house the Transportation Alternatives Program, and is proposed to be increased from $835 million to $850 million. And the bill gives Metropolitan Planning Organizations additional flexibility in how to spend their funds.

Transit Oriented Development would be eligible for the TIFIA program and the minimum project size threshold would be lowered to $10 million, expanding the program significantly for smaller projects.

The Michigan delegation was mostly supportive with both Senators voting yes and twelve of the fourteen Representatives voting for the bill as well. Congressmen Amash and Huizenga were the two no votes.

Summer Minnick is the Director of External Relations and Federal Affairs. She can be reached at sminnick@mml.org or 517-908-0301.

Commercial Rehabilitation Act Sunset Extension Legislation Passes House

This week SB 556, a bill to extend the sunset of the Commercial Rehabilitation Act from December of this year to 2020, received full passage from the House of Representatives! This act has been used in communities across the state to assist in eradicating blight and putting properties back to productive use.

Thank you to Sen. Horn for continuing to be an advocate on this issue and keeping a valuable local tool that assists our communities in blight control and economic development.

The legislation now goes to the Governor for his signature.

Nikki Brown is a legislative associate for the League handling economic development, land use and municipal services issues.  She can be reached at nbrown@mml.org or 517-908-0305.

Congress Poised to Pass Long-Term Transportation Package This Week

For the first time in ten years, Congress is on the verge of passing a long-term transportation package and there are some big wins for local governments within the new deal. The committee of House and Senate negotiators have agreed to the new bill worth approximately $305 billion, entitled the FAST Act (Fixing America’s Surface Transportation), and both Chambers are expected to pass it by the deadline of this Friday, December 4th. The biggest win for local communities, quite simply, is that it is a 5 year arrangement and local leaders will not have to wonder what will happen every six months under more extensions. The League had been advocating first and foremost for a bill that expands beyond the next fiscal year to enable more long-term planning for transportation projects. Specifically, there are many other significant victories being highlighted in the bill, which spans 1300 pages.

The Surface Transportation Program is now the Surface Transportation Block Grant Program and increases the amount allocated to local leaders from 50% to 55% over the length of the bill and gives locals greater flexibility in how the funds are spent.

The Surface Transportation Block Grant Program would now house the Transportation Alternatives Program, and is proposed to be increased from $835 million to $850 million. And the bill gives Metropolitan Planning Organizations additional flexibility in how to spend their funds.

Transit Oriented Development would be eligible for the TIFIA program and the minimum project size threshold would be lowered to $10 million, expanding the program significantly for smaller projects.

The bill is being paid for by a series of sources, not including any changes to the federal gas tax. Some of the sources include the Federal Reserve surplus account, selling a portion of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve and cutting the dividend the Federal Reserve pays to some member banks.

We will notify you as soon as the bill has cleared both the House and Senate later this week. We’ll know more details of the bill in the coming days, but the changes identified so far show significant improvement for local governments and their support for transportation infrastructure by the federal government. We’re pleased after all these years to be on the verge of such a victory!

Summer Minnick is the Director of External Relations and Federal Affairs. She can be reached at 517-908-0301 or sminnick@mml.org.