This morning the House Regulatory Reform committee passed 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. 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.

The bill now moves onto the full House for passage.

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. 

SB 739 and 740 (Sen. Virgil Smith, D- Detroit) passed the Senate last week. These bills would amend the Local Development and Financing Act (LDFA) and the Corridor Improvement Authority(CIA) Act to allow an LDFA or CIA 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.  These bills now move onto the House Commerce Committee and are similar to a pair of bills dealing with Economic Development Corporations and Brownfield Redevelopment Authorities.

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.

The House of Representatives passed HB 4573 this week.  As introduced, it would prorate liquor license fees for first-year licensees that are granted a license for less than a full year (prorated quarterly).  During a committee hearing last week, there was a substitute adopted and passed out of committeechanging the bill to make it an annual renewal of liquor licenses (instead of all happening at the same time each year), whether bought or transferred instead of a proration.  On the House floor last week, the bill was amended back to its original intent with a slight change of a quarterly proration if the business will have the license for less than 9 months out of the year (instead of a full year as originally introduced). The bill passed with bipartisan support and now moves onto 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 5273, a bill dealing with Michigan investment markets, unanimously passed out of the Senate Banking and Financial Institutions committee this afternoon.  HB 5273 would give businesses and residents in Michigan the ability to become broker-dealers to create a market (online or in person) through which intrastate stocks can be listed, bought, sold and resold. Those interested in purchasing stock from local companies would have easy access to the listings of all the companies on the exchange and show these potential investors that there is indeed a market for what they may be purchasing.  Exchanges must apply and be registered with the state as well as follow rules of operation laid out in the legislation which will provide security for all those participating, both the businesses and the investors.

This is the next progression from the MILE/crowdfunding legislation that was passed earlier this year and we are thankful to Rep. Jenkins for working so diligently to help small businesses in our local communities grow and prosper.

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. 

Senate Bill 922, a bill to extend the December 31, 2014 sunset for bonding for communities with a AA credit rating switching from defined benefit plans to defined contribution plans, passed out of the Senate Finance committee today.  The introduced version would extend the sunset to December 31, 2016 but an amendment was added in committee today changing that to December 31, 2015.

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.

House Bill 5397, a bill creating the Municipal Utility Residential Clean Energy Program Act, passed out of the House 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 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 full Senate passed SB 313, legislation making changes to the Housing Law dealing with rental inspections. If you recall, the version that passed out of the senate committee last fall had detrimental impacts on rental inspections in Michigan and the health and safety of residents living in them. That version, which affects communities over 10,000, capped both registration fees (and only allowed to require re-registration if the property is sold or transferred or if new units are constructed) and inspection fees for rental inspections, did not allow a community to charge for a re-inspection and changed the timeline for inspections to not less than 6 years but no longer than 10 years. The bill would also require an inspector to inform the lessee of their right to refuse an inspection and request and obtain permission from the lessee to inspect.

A lot of work has been done on that version of the bill to get to the version that passed the Senate today: 313_Senatepassedversion. As it passed today, both the registration fee and inspection fee caps have been removed and the ability to charge for re-inspections has been restored. The timeline for inspection has been returned to what is in current law (no longer than 4 years but may go longer if community chooses for good actors). What remains in the Senate passed version is as follows:
1. only allowing for re-registration when additional dwelling units are constructed and when the property is sold or transferred,
2. clarifying the leesee has the right to refuse an inspection. Language was added in that would allow the municipality to require the landlord to seek the permission of the lessee for the inspection and notify the inspector of the response. This does not apply to emergency situations or where there is a warrant (in those cases, no permission is needed for the inspection).
3. Payment of the inspection is due after the inspection is completed except in cases of new construction or where the property has been transferred to a new owner.

While we still have concerns with this version of the legislation, we want to thank the bill sponsor and his staff for working with us to address many of our concerns from the original version of the legislation. We will continue working on this as it makes its way to the House and look forward to our continued work with the bill sponsor and his staff.

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.

The House Regulatory Reform committee passed out HB 4573 today.  As introduced, it would prorate liquor license fees for first-year licensees that are granted a license for less than a full year (prorated quarterly).  During a committee hearing last week, there was discussion (and a substitute that was adopted today to this effect) on changing the bill to make it an annual renewal of liquor licenses (instead of all happening at the same time each year), whether bought or transferred instead of a proration.  An initial concern raised was making sure our local communities were notified by Michigan Liquor Control Commission (MLCC) when a license was up for renewal so councils and law enforcement had ample time to review and ask for revocation if necessary from MLCC.  The substitute that was adopted and voted out of committee this morning does not contain any notice requirements.  We have been in discussion with the bill sponsor, chair of the committee and policy staff on this and the ability to offer an amendment on the floor to give locals notice.

That being said, there are discussions happening on moving the language in the legislation back to the original intent of prorating the fees for first-year licensees.  I will update the blog as this process moves forward.

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.

A set of bills allowing microwbrewers to provide tastings and sell their beer at farmers markets, HB 5426 (Rep. Marcia Hovey Wright) and HB 5427 (Rep. Andy Schor), passed out of the House Regulatory Reform Committee this week.  Microbrewers would be defined as not producing more than 6,000 gallons of beer a year and would be limited to only allowing the sale of growlers (2 per person per day) under the legislation that passed committee.

Similar legislation was signed into law last year creating a farmers market permit that would allow a small wine maker to conduct tastings and sell wine at farmers markets. These two pieces of legislation expand that to allow for microbreweries to do the same.

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.

The Senate Agriculture committee took up a second week of testimony on Thursday on the changes to the Generally Accepted Agricultural Management Practices (GAAMPs) changes.

The changes recently approved by the Commission add a new category 4 that states land is not suitable for livestock if the area of the community is primarily residential (defined as more than 13 homes within 1/8 of a mile of the animals, or with any home within 250 feet of the proposed facility) AND does not allow for agricultural use.  This would still allow a local community to have an ordinance allowing livestock within their community in these areas if they choose to do so.

At the end of the committee hearing the chair, Rep. Joe Hune, expressed his desire to form a work group of individuals and organizations on either side of the aisle, legislators and the department to work this issue out.

If our communities have had or continue to have issues dealing with Right to Farm and the GAAMPs especially as this process moves forward with the new changes, please make me aware of them so those concerns can be passed along to the MDARD and then to the Commission (a request they made to us during their last Commission meeting).

Additionally, MSU Extension has written a few great articles regarding the changes and the positive impact this has on a local communities ability to allow for these types of activities within their own communities.  They can be found here:

Changes to Site Selection GAAMP mean communities have greater opportunity to plan for food systems

New Right to Farm Act Siting GAAMP now in effect

New Right to Farm Site Selection GAAMPs needs local government attention

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.