Next Wednesday the House Tax Policy Committee is considering two pieces of legislation that would require assessors to get written permission to enter structures in order to assess them.

House Bill 5172 requires written consent for an assessor to enter a structure, and if that consent is denied the assessor cannot increase the value of the property based on any assumptions.

House Bill 5173 states that the assessor’s procedural manual may not require a homeowner to grant an assessor access to a property nor may an assessor access a property without written permission.

Obviously this legislation would significantly hamstring the ability of our assessors to do their jobs. The legislation will receive a hearing on Wednesday, January 22 at 9 a.m. Please contact your legislators and ask them to vote no on this legislation.

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

Earlier this week the House Oversight Committee heard testimony on House Bills 5193 and 5194, bills that amend the Open Meetings Act.

House Bill 5193 prohibits a local unit from going into closed session in connection with anticipated litigation. House Bill 5194 indicates that if a public body reenacts a disputed decision in cases where an action has been initiated to invalidate a decision of a public body then that reenactment is not a defense to a criminal action.

The League testified in opposition to this legislation. In particular the changes to HB 5193 are confusing and unnecessary. We further indicated a desire to amend the statute to allow reasonable (as opposed to actual) attorney fees and to allow the discussion of the sale of property (in addition to purchase and lease of property) in closed session.

The committee did not vote on the legislation.

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

Over the next few days we’re going to hear a lot about Michigan, the comeback state.  About how, after over a decade of economic decline, our state is on the rebound, retaining and attracting small and large companies, and creating jobs.  We’ll hear about how we have a $500 million rainy day fund and a projected surplus of nearly $1 billion. And we’ll hear a lot about how this was achieved by an administration that has received accolades across the country for their financial wizardry at getting it done.  Yes, there will be lots of hand shaking, back slapping and a general declaration of victory.

Of course there are always two sides to any story and the other side of this one provides a stark contrast in reality. For instance, ask economists of any particular stripe and they’ll tell you that Michigan’s economic recovery has largely been accomplished on the foundation of the auto bailout.  And the dirty little secret is that it’s also been accomplished by the shift and shaft budget prowess of those who make such decisions, moving money away from various areas like funding local government services, education, and other services to fill budget gaps and fulfill other priorities. And that all comes at a price.

The reality at the local level is the one I’d like to focus on for a moment. I’ve heard it said time and again that all local government officials and administrators need to do is share services more, get a handle on pension costs, and forecast and plan better.  That’s tough to do when the partnership between state and local governments to provide local services has been broken. Over the past 12 years, payments to local governments have been slashed by a cumulative amount of $6 billion. That’s right $6 billion. Couple that with the loss in property tax revenue that communities are still recovering from due to the financial crash of a few years ago, along with the fact that our state limits the ability of locals to raise their own money, and the picture becomes more complicated.

The reality is that our municipal finance system, or that system which funds local services, has been broken for some time.  And while there will be those declaring victory, the fact is that there are more local units on the state Department of Treasury fiscal distress watch list than at any other time in this state’s history. People can blame local officials for that all they want, but it’s only because of the work by local officials that there aren’t more communities in bankruptcy.

So before we go about declaring victory, let’s remember there is still a lot of work to do to ensure Michigan’s economic recovery is long-term and sustainable and not just made into a platform for term-limited politicians seeking to declare their legacy as having fixed the place.

Have you ever wanted to engage more in federal policy? Now is your chance! The National League of Cities is accepting applications for their full Policy and Advocacy Committees. There are several committees to choose form, including Community and Economic Development; Energy, Environment and Natural Resources; Finance, Administration and Intergovernmental Relations; Human Development; Information Technology and Communications; Public Safety and Crime Prevention; Transportation Infrastructure and Services. You do not need to be a  member city of NLC to participate in the full committees (you do need to be a member to serve on each Steering Committee). The full committees meet at NLC’s two major events each year – the Congressional Cities Conference and the Congress of Cities and Exposition. If you are interested, the deadline to submit your application is Friday, January 24th. To apply, click here.

Summer Minnick is Director of Policy Initiatives and Federal Affairs. She can be reached at 517-908-0301 or sminnick@mml.org.

Recently, several articles have appeared that reference a “glitch” in the Affordable Care Act (ACA), in which communities with more than 50 employees will be forced to provide coverage for volunteer firefighters. Since this came about, Treasury and the IRS have reviewed the information and just released a statement, saying they will be providing rules soon that addresses this unintended consequence. The release from Treasury can be found by clicking here.

Summer Minnick is Director of Policy Initiatives and Federal Affairs. She can be reached at 517-908-0301 or sminnick@mml.org.

Congress is back to work after their winter break. Just before the holidays, they passed a two-year budget agreement that lifted the sequester on discretionary programs that were set to go into effect if no action was taken. Now, they have until January 15^th to pass all the appropriation bills necessary to outline how those set funding levels will be divided up. There is no agreement yet but negotiations seem to be moving along and are being held closely to the vest by House and Senate leaders. One issue that was not resolved favorably in the budget negotiation was the Build America Bonds (BABs) subsidy payments. So the reduction in those payments will continue. We will update you this week on how the budget breakdowns unfold.

Summer Minnick is Director of Policy Initiatives and Federal Affairs. She can be reached at 517-908-0301 or sminick@mml.org.

In today’s consensus revenue estimating conference, state officials including the House and Senate Fiscal Agencies and the Department of Treasury, estimated a $970 million budget surplus over the next three years.

For Fiscal Year (FY) 2013, there is an established $374 million surplus in the general fund (GF) and $56 million in the school aid fund (SAF) for a total of $430 million of actual surplus.

The FY 2014 estimates are $126 million in GF and $90 million in SAF higher than the budget estimates from May of 2013.

The FY 2015 estimates are $206 million in GF and $119 million in SAF higher than the budget estimates from May of 2013.

League President Jackie Noonan issued a statement calling for lawmakers to reinvest in communities after a decade of using revenue sharing dollars to fill state budget holes.

Michigan Municipal League statement on budget surplus Jan 2014

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

Category two to qualify for funding under the Economic Vitality Incentive Program (EVIP) is due on February 1, 2014. Category two is consolidation of services.

To qualify for category two a local unit of government must certify to the Department of Treasury that they have produced a consolidation plan.

First time filers must submit a list of any previous service cooperation, collaboration, consolidation, innovation and/or privatization and include an estimated cost savings amount.  A first time filer must also include one or more new proposals and include an estimated savings amount and estimated timeline.

Previous filers must include an update on the status of previous years’ proposals including its implementation, barriers experienced and an estimated timeline of completion.  A previous filer must also include one or more new proposals to increase cooperation, collaboration, consolidation, innovation or privatization.

If you have any questions please contact the League or Treasury directly at TreasRevenueSharing@michigan.gov

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 League's Samantha Harkins gets interviewed by a TV news reporter.

As the league’s chief lobbyist, she is an important force representing Michigan’s communities in Lansing. She told Crain’s one of her goals this year is changing the law phasing out the state’s personal property tax for business to guarantee complete reimbursement to communities of lost revenue from the tax. As written, the law provides 80 percent.

Samantha is on the list with numerous other well-known Michigan politicians and key political figures, including Lt. Gov. Brian Calley; Rep. Wayne Schmidt, R-Traverse City, chair of the state House Transportation Committee; state Sen. Rebekah Warren, D-Ann Arbor; Cindy Estrada, United Auto Workers vice president; Emily Dievendorf, managing director at Equality Michigan; Barb Byrum, Ingham County Clerk; Rep. Klint Kesto, R-Commerce Township; Lon Johnson, of the Michigan Democratic Party; and Ann Flood, Department of Insurance and Financial Services.

Matt Bach is director of media relations for the Michigan Municipal League. He can be reached at mach@mml.org and (734) 669-6317.

This morning Governor Snyder discussed his plan for a “no regrets” energy future by 2025.  He enumerated several goals for the state’s energy policy focusing on the areas of adaptability (eliminating energy waste), reliability (reducing outages and their length), affordability of rates and protection of the environment. The press release is available here: NR energy plan.

This announcement came after the Governor’s special message on energy and environment that he gave last year.  Additionally this year the Michigan Public Service Commission issued four energy reports specifically focusing on energy efficiency, renewable energy, electric choice and additional areas (i.e., reliability, higher rates and natural gas storage expansion). A summary of the MPSC reports is available here: summary of energy reports

We expect the discussion around these energy issues to heat up in 2014 and 2015.