House Bill 5397, a bill creating the Municipal Utility Residential Clean Energy Program Act, received a committee hearing in the Senate Energy and Technology committee today.  This would enable municipalities that own electric utilities to establish a program to help provide financing to residential property owners for energy efficiency projects. This is modeled after the PACE Act.

This legislation passed the full House prior to the legislative recess in June on a 108 to 2 vote.

This is an idea that was brought to Rep. Joe Haveman’s attention by the city of Holland who would like the opportunity to create a program such as this.

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.

Today, the Senate Energy and Technology reported out of committee SB 493, a bill dealing with amateur radio operations.  As it was introduced, it had a significant impact on local control and zoning.  However, through a workgroup process, the bill was made significantly better (substitute found here: SB 493 S2 (3)) and now mirrors the Federal regulations that our local communities are already required to adhere to.

It also discusses an advisory council made up of amateur radio industry folks and local government folks so anyone with a question can seek feedback and research from this group either at the industry level or the community level.

We appreciate the work the bill sponsor and his office put into the legislation and hearing our concerns from a local government perspective. Also, a big thank you to Tim Wolff, village manager of Lake Isabella, for attending the workgroup meetings with me and providing valuable feedback.

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

Rep. Eileen Kowall plans to introduce legislation this week (draft of that legislation can be found here:TIF Draft 1 (2)) making significant changes to TIF districts.  Also available is a copy of the PowerPoint that was used to present the over all plan (with not a lot of detailed specifics): Tax Increment Financing Reform Presentation (9 11 2014).

Some of the goals of the legislation include:

1. combine all the TIF acts into one (but leaving Brownfields and Nonprofit Railway Act on their own),
2. increase in transparency along with an incentive to comply,
3. define what activities TIF dollars can be used for, and
4. add in special assessment capabilities similar to what is allowed for a Principal Shopping District, in addition to the up to 2 mill levy allowed currently under the DDA act.

Here is a brief analysis of what the Draft 1 legislation does: Brief analysis of Draft 1 TIF legislation.

The legislative timeline for completion is a fast one.  The bill is expected to be introduced this week followed by two weeks of testimony beginning September 24 with the goal of passing it out of the House before they leave at the beginning of October.  That would leave the Senate for lame duck.

As you read through the analysis and/or draft legislation and have questions or comments (especially feedback on how this will specifically impact your local communities) please contact me so we can continue to compile local impact lists.  Additionally, if you have any interest in testifying either next week or the following week, we would love to have you to put some local faces to the problems this legislation could create.

Please contact your Representatives with the local impact of the legislation and ask them to not rush a vote just to get something done before the end of the year.  This is a significant change and deserves a significant amount of attention, work, discussion and detail put into it so we are not creating bad public policy.

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

Yesterday, the Senate Judiciary committee met and passed out SB 979 (Sen. Hildenbrand), a bill to include pneumatic guns (i.e. paint ball guns) in the list of pistols or other firearms that local units of government currently cannot tax, regulate ownership of, registration of, sale/transfer/possession and transportation of (PA 319 of 1990).

The legislation does allow a local unit to regulate the possession of a pneumatic gun in someone under the age of 16 unless it is their private property as well as allow a local unit to prohibit discharging of a pneumatic gun in heavily populated areas.

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

Governor Snyder has signed SB 846 (Sen. Dave Hildenbrand, R – Lowell), a bill that amends the Michigan liquor control code dealing with redevelopment liquor licenses and is identical to HB 4257 (Rep. Cindy Denby, R – Fowlerville) that passed the House late last year. It is now PA 270 of 2014.  

According to a recent determination by the Liquor Control Commission, only businesses in cities are eligible for redevelopment liquor licenses. This determination is counter to the last six years, where the Liquor Control Commission has allowed the redevelopment licenses in redevelopment districts to be for cities, villages, or townships. This bill is an attempt to rectify this issue and clarifies eligibility for the redevelopment liquor licenses in the development districts to cities, villages, and townships. We have heard from multiple villages worried about this because their redevelopment efforts are coming to a halt without being eligible for these redevelopment licenses.

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

This afternoon the Senate Government Operations committee passed House Bill 4271, a bill that would allow local units of government to regulate (or ban) provisioning centers (i.e. dispensaries), and HB 5104, a bill to allow for medical marijuana infused products.  There has been some discussion on HB 4271 regarding removing the local control aspect of it but that remained intact as it passed committee today.

Majority Leader Richardville (chair of the committee) stated there is still work to be done on the legislation before a vote on the Senate floor takes place but he wanted to send the message the Senate is interested in moving the process forward.

Samantha Harkins is the Director of State Affairs for the Michigan Municipal League.  She can be reached at 517-908-0306 or email at sharkins@mml.org

The first piece of the personal property tax reimbursement package is upon us. It involves reimbursement of TIF plans for small parcel exemption losses.

There are two forms created by Treasury: Form 5176 –Non-Brownfield Authorities and Form 5176BR –Brownfield Authorities . These forms are also available on Treasury’s website: Local Government Officials Forms. One form is for brownfield authorities, and the other form is for all other authorities—DDAs, LDFAs, CIAs, etc.  Small taxpayer exemption loss (as that term is defined here in subsection ‘y’) will be reimbursed to the extent they actually cause revenue loss. If an authority has “negative capture” overall and would not have any tax increment revenue regardless of the small parcel exemption loss, there is no reimbursement. To that end, estimated 2014 tax increment revenue for all property by class is one step in the form. Since brownfield authorities cannot have “negative capture” they do not have to complete that step and it does not appear on the brownfield form.

The instruction pages give step-by-step detail of what data are needed to accurately complete the form. Some is provided via links in the forms, and some must be provided by the authorities.

The process will certainly raise questions from many applicants as they complete it for the first time. In recognition of that, and the delay in the availability of the forms, Treasury is exercising its statutory discretion to extend the June 15 due date. The due date is August 29, 2014.

Should you have any questions while filling this out, please contact Jim Mills in Treasury (Manager, Accounting and Auditing Section, Local Audit and Finance Division) at millsj@michigan.gov or 517-335-4669.

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

The Michigan Legislature is out of session until July 16 at the earliest.  They are in district campaigning so it is a perfect time for you to set up meetings with them in your own communities.

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

HB 4363 (Rep. Price, R – Holland) passed out of the Senate Government Operations committee today.  This bill would make it a requirement to be physically present to vote in order for a meeting to be considered open to the public.  There were different concerns from both sides of the aisle and the chair asked the bill sponsor to work to address concerns before it is taken up for a vote in the Senate.

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

HB 5131 and 5132 (Rep. Harvey Santana, D- Detroit) passed the full Senate today. These bills would amend the Brownfield Redevelopment Financing Act and the Economic Development Corporations Act to allow a local BRA or EDC to adopt a rule linking an appointment of a public official to that board to the expiration of that official’s service as a public official, including a resignation or removal from office.  This is permissive.  The bills now go back to the House for concurrence (since they were amended in the Senate) and then to the Governor’s desk for his signature.

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