The International Downtown Association (IDA) will be holding their Midwest Forum in Downtown Grand Rapids May 5-6, 2014.  The conference has been designed to be distinctly different and memorable.  Attendees won’t be stuck inside convention and meeting spaces – they’ll be moving between six progressive topical sessions held inside the offices and intuitions that are collectively working to build and rethink the Grand Rapids community.  The focus will be issues and opportunities facing Downtowns that include talent attraction, innovative public engagement, growing support for local businesses, positioning arts and creative institutions to change the cultural landscape, transformative projects and techniques, and much more…

To explore these topics, a lineup of more than 20 speakers has been assembled, including:

• Richard Saul Wurman (Tuesday keynote) – Founder of the TED Conference, and so much more..
• Rick DeVos – 3^rd generation philanthropist and architect of the world-renowned ArtPrize and Start Garden
• Mike Berne – International retail planning expert
• Jeannette Pierce – Grassroots talent attraction guru at D:hive
• Chris Muller – Citizen advocate working to change the shape of the Grand River
• Scott Page – Principal of the APA’s recipient of the 2013 National Planning Award for an Emerging Planning and Design Firm
• Sarah Filley – Co-Founder of PopUpHood
• Lyz Crane – Deputy Director, ArtPlace America

See all the detail and the full list of speakers here.

Registration is only $175…

Questions? Contact David Downey (ddowney@ida-downtown.org) or Debbie Young (dyoung@ida-downtown.org) of IDA.

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.

 

Renowned economist and Hillsdale College Professor Dr. Gary Wolfram has released a report calling on the state to commit to restoring state revenue sharing dollars and remove restraints on road funding enacted in the PA 51 funding formula.

The report indicates that statutory revenue sharing is still 26 percent lower than it should be despite nominal increases in the last few years. Dr. Wolfram also emphasizes the challenges communities face in the ability to raise revenue because property tax growth is capped by 5 percent or the rate of inflation whichever is less.

You can view Dr. Wolfram’s report here: Wolfram report

We appreciate this well researched take on the status of municipal finance in Michigan. Last month the League released The Great Revenue Sharing Heist which emphasizes the significant financial impact $6.2 billion in revenue sharing cuts has had on our communities.

Dr. Wolfram concludes that it should be a priority of the state to “restore its commitment to its local governments. In particular, it should use some of the projected surplus to return revenue sharing to full statutory funding. It should also remove constraints on local governments in Act 51 that limit their ability to maintain local roads.” We could not agree more, Dr. Wolfram.

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

This week the campaign to pass the August 5, 2014 ballot proposal, the last step in personal property tax (PPT) reform, kicked off with a series of press conferences. The Michigan Citizens for Strong and Safe Communities coalition is seeking to pass a ballot referendum that would allow for use of a portion of the currently collected statewide use tax to fully reimburse communities for PPT loss.

League members attended and led press conferences in Dearborn, Flint, Saginaw and Traverse City.

The coalition has launched a website and you can also follow it on Facebook and Twitter.

We encourage members to support the full replacement of PPT dollars with a significantly more stable reimbursement mechanism by voting “yes” on August 5.

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 legislature is on spring break until late April. The House is scheduled to be in next on Thursday, April 17. The Senate is scheduled to be back the week of April 22.

In the interim the lobbying team is still hard at work with legislative and administration staff on various issues including (but not even close to limited to) EVIP, transportation funding and tax capture district reform. Happy Spring!

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

On Friday Governor Rick Snyder signed a ten bill package that represents months of negotiations on personal property tax (PPT) reform. The Michigan Municipal League’s message on PPT has consistently been 100 percent, guaranteed replacement. The bills do represent 100 percent replacement and a more stable reimbursement mechanism.

The legislation, Senate Bills 821-830, begins fading out PPT in 2016.  The exception is the small parcel exemption for personal property of less than $80,000 true cash value which went into effect December 31, 2013.

The League will be holding a webinar on PPT reform in the coming weeks.

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 House Local Government committee took testimony this week on HB 4024 (Rep. Heise, R – Plymouth).  This would lock borders of charter townships of 20,000 or less by not allowing annexations.  This piece of legislation has been introduced for the past few sessions.  It stems from an annexation issue between Northville Twp and the city of Livonia (although the city of Livonia didn’t play an active role in the annexation).  The annexation was ultimately turned down by the voters but the goal of the sponsor is to prevent this type of “hostile annexation” to happen again between a more urbanized township and a city.  We testified in opposition to this as did the Michigan Association of Realtors.  The Michigan Association of Home Builders is opposed as well.  There will be workgroups on this starting next week and continuing through the summer months.

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

This afternoon the House passed a ten bill package that represents months of negotiations on personal property tax (PPT) reform. The Michigan Municipal League’s message on PPT has consistently been 100 percent, guaranteed replacement. The bills do represent 100 percent replacement and a more stable reimbursement mechanism.

The bills, Senate Bills 821-830, now head to the Senate for concurrence. We expect the bills to be on the Governor’s desk by the end of the week.

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 Michigan Municipal League is asking our League members to contact their state lawmakers today to oppose changes to the revenue sharing/Economic Vitality Incentive Program (EVIP). These changes were approved in the House Appropriations General Government Subcommittee this morning (March 25, 2014) and are expected to go to the House floor this week for a vote. It’s imperative our members tell their legislators to oppose this action.

To learn about these proposed changes, read this blog post by the League’s Samantha Harkins.

When contacting your lawmakers here are some key points to make:

– The intent of revenue sharing dollars is to help communities fund essential services their residents desire, such as police and fire protection, water and sewer service, snow removal, infrastructure improvements, etc.

– The proposed changes would expand the EVIP program to nearly 1,500 local governments, including 1,035 townships.

– We question why the program is being expanded to local units of governments that don’t provide essential services that cities, villages and urban townships provide.

– The proposal changes how EVIP funds are distributed to a per capita formula. This formula would add hundreds of additional communities to the formula without any consideration of whether these communities provide essential services.

– The League is happy to have a discussion about the best way to get resources to our communities; however, a pure per capita distribution will have a detrimental effect on the many Michigan communities who provide essential services while rewarding those communities who do not.

– The proposal requires local units of government to commit increased EVIP funds to road maintenance and unfunded liabilities. This “one-size-fits-all-mentality” is the ultimate rebuff of local control. Local units of government are careful stewards of taxpayer dollars and know and understand the priorities of their community and residents. The Legislature dictating how funds are spent does not take into account other important needs for funding. Perhaps roads and unfunded liabilities are the best place for this money to be spent in one community but not another. That is up to the local community to decide.

The League appreciates all that you can do in sharing the concerns about this proposal. If you have any questions about this please contact the League’s Samantha Harkins at sharkins@mml.org and (517) 908-0306.

This morning the House Energy & Technology Committee heard a second week of testimony on House Bill 5184, a bill that would deregulate electricity. More specifically it would move the state from a system of hybrid electric regulation to deregulation.

The legislation would require large electric utility companies (at least 1 million customers) to submit plans to the Michigan Public Service Commission (MPSC) to either sell off or to transfer their electric generation assets to an affiliate—thus separating electric generation from distribution. The affiliate would not be regulated by the MPSC.

This morning the House General Government Appropriations Subcommittee reported its recommendations for the general government budget that includes the Economic Vitality Incentive Program (EVIP).

Under this proposal category 1, the dashboard, would remain in effect without change. Category 2 would require 5 percent of the second EVIP payment to be committed to road construction or preservation. Category 3 would require 5 percent of the payment to be committed to unfunded liabilities. The language further says that a community that receives less than $50,000 in EVIP funding would not have to comply with the EVIP requirements.

In addition the House proposes changing how EVIP funds are distributed. A local unit would receive a 1 percent increase if they were eligible for payment in the current fiscal year or $7.14609 per capita, whichever is greater. The per capita formula would add include hundreds of additional communities to the formula without regard to service provision.

Reps. Fred Durhal (D-Detroit) and Sam Singh (D-East Lansing) both offered amendments to strip out the EVIP requirements altogether and restore full funding for statutory revenue sharing. We appreciate their efforts to eliminate these burdensome requirements.

The League has significant concerns about this language and its disregard for both local control in spending and distribution to communities who provide services. We will continue to work on language that helps invest in communities who provide essential services and does not penalize them by requiring that they spend money as the legislature dictates.

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