As soon as the last person headed home from the League’s 2013 Convention in Detroit, our heads began spinning with new ideas for our 2014 Convention.  Mark your calendars for Oct. 15-17 and plan to join your fellow municipal officials in Marquette, a northern Michigan gem nestled on the sparkling shore of Lake Superior. We’ll fill you in on lots of things you may not know about this Upper Peninsula community – from its internationally-acclaimed Northern Michigan University to its thriving downtown and spectacular recreational opportunities.

To sharpen your skills and knowledge base, we have planned sessions on a wide variety of topics. You’ll have an opportunity to learn everything from crowdfunding to boomer turnover to placemaking like a developer. You’ll also have a chance to get out in the fresh Upper Peninsula air and see what makes Marquette unique on one of several mobile workshops.

So get ready to grab onto some new ideas that you can apply in your own community. Registration starts June 23!

#mmlconv

As soon as the last person headed home from the League’s 2013 Convention in Detroit, our heads began spinning with new ideas for our 2014 Convention.  Mark your calendars for Oct. 15-17 and plan to join your fellow municipal officials in Marquette, a northern Michigan gem nestled on the sparkling shore of Lake Superior. We’ll fill you in on lots of things you may not know about this Upper Peninsula community – from its internationally-acclaimed Northern Michigan University to its thriving downtown and spectacular recreational opportunities.

To sharpen your skills and knowledge base, we have planned sessions on a wide variety of topics. You’ll have an opportunity to learn everything from crowdfunding to boomer turnover to placemaking like a developer. You’ll also have a chance to get out in the fresh Upper Peninsula air and see what makes Marquette unique on one of several mobile workshops.

So get ready to grab onto some new ideas that you can apply in your own community. Registration starts June 23!

#mmlconv

This afternoon the Senate passed Senate Bill 850, a bill that would exempt police and fire from PA 54 so they can have retroactive pay increases after a contract expires. The bill passed by a vote of 27-10.

In 2011 the legislature passed a number of reforms to help employers control costs and be better stewards of taxpayer resources. One of the, if not the, most significant reform was to prohibit retroactive pay increases after a contract has expired. This game changing statute, PA 54 of 2011, has helped communities settle contracts more quickly and provides more certainty in municipal budgets. Passage of SB 850 would be detrimental to our ability to settle contracts quickly and efficiently.

The Michigan Municipal League has been strongly opposed to this bill and we continue to urge you to contact your legislators to let them know how detrimental this carve out would be. The arguments the public safety groups use for supporting this bill are that the number of PA 312 filings would proliferate and the legislature only intended this bill to impact teachers.

According to the Michigan Employment Relations Commission there were only 43 PA 312 filings in 2013 as opposed to 69 in 2011. PA 312 filings are significantly lower than they were before enactment of PA 54.

In addition, even if the legislature only intended this for teachers, it has been a game changer for municipal budgets, and it’s critical that we keep this tool to allow local units the opportunity to settle contracts expeditiously and save taxpayers money.

We appreciate all the members who have already contacted their lawmakers on this issue and we hope others follow their lead. It is critical that you please contact your legislators and ask them to OPPOSE Senate Bill 850. You can find the contact information for your Legislators here. We’ve also prepared a letter you can email directly to your lawmakers. Go here to do that today.

The legislation now goes to the House for consideration. A House version, House Bill 5097, is on the House floor.

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.

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.  

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. 

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.

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.