Yesterday the House Commerce committee posted, and House Bill 5856, a bill to amend the DDA act to provide for additional transparency and reporting requirements as well as adding in fund accumulation restrictions, was added to the agenda. We were working off of a substitute bill that had been sent to us last week: TIF sub latest

This bill has been a thorn in the League’s side this year, and in our view it was not ready to be passed by the committee. Yesterday we talked to committee members in the House lobby to relay our concerns.

This morning at the start of committee, Chairman Frank Foster announced that House Bill 5856 was being pulled from the agenda, and that the committee would not take up this legislation this year. The legislative session ends next week, and the committee’s failure to take up this legislation means that the bill will die at the end of December. The legislature will have to reintroduce it and begin the process anew.

We do not anticipate this being the end of this issue, and we welcome continued conversations next term. We’ve heard from the Governor’s office that there is an interest by the administration to continue reviewing this issue. We look forward to being part of a comprehensive discussion on the best way to utilize economic development tools.

Thank you to all of our members for the hard work and continually reaching out to their lawmakers. It obviously makes a difference!

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.