This evening the Michigan General Government Budget Conference Report was signed. The Michigan Municipal League was successful in its efforts to eliminate most of the Economic Vitality Incentive Program (EVIP) requirements that have been burdensome to communities for the last several years. The category 1 requirements still remain as far as dashboards, citizen guides, etc, but the other criteria for category 2 and 3 have been eliminated entirely.
A huge thank you to Senator John Pappageorge (R-Troy) who has been the champion in eliminating EVIP this entire year. Sen. Pappageorge has requested that we no longer use the term “EVIP” and eliminate it entirely from our vocabularies. I think many of our members will happily comply.
Many of our communities contacted their legislators expressing concerns with EVIP, and a number of you testified before the legislature (View photos of that here). Thank you for your critical advocacy on this issue. They clearly heard us, and the pressure worked!
Sen. Pappageorge
The conference report included an increase of $13 million to revenue sharing. Of that amount, $7.2 million (or 3 percent) would be distributed through the existing revenue sharing formula for cities, villages and townships who are currently eligible for statutory revenue sharing.
An additional $5.8 million of one-time funding is included and distributed to cities, villages and townships. The payment will be distributed by providing the greater of a 3 percent increase over the Fiscal Year 2013-14 revenue sharing payment or per capita of $2.65 for a local unit with a population of 7,500 or more. Communities with a population of less than 7,500 will receive a 3 percent increase over a FY2013-14 payment.
The budget also includes an additional $8 million to help financially distressed cities, villages and townships. The funding will be distributed by the Department of Treasury in a grant program.
Constitutional revenue sharing is also up by 2.4 percent.
You can view the amount your community will receive in revenue sharing here: revshare conf table
The conference report now goes to the House and Senate chambers for approval, but it may not be amended. We expect it will be presented to the Governor as early as the end of this week.
Samantha Harkins is the Director of State Affairs for the League handling municipal finance issues. She can be reached at sharkins@mml.org or 517-908-0306.