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 application for Fiscal Year 2014 – Round 1 of the Competitive Grant Assistance Program (CGAP) is now available. The application is available on the Department of Treasury’s website.

There is a minimum of $15.0 million in CGAP funding available for this round.  Applications will be due to the Michigan Department of Treasury by December 30, 2013.  Starting on November 18, 2013, the grant panel will begin reviewing the grant applications submitted.  Qualified grants may be awarded on a rolling basis.

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 afternoon the Senate Local Government Committee unanimously passed Senate Bill 307, a bill introduced Senator Steve Bieda (D-Warren) that removes population thresholds for communities who want to use a police and fire special assessment as a revenue option. The committee adopted and passed a substitute version that you can view here: sb 307 substitute

Under the law currently a city with a population of under 15,000 may levy a police and fire special assessment. A city with a population of more than 15,000 and less than 70,000 in a county with a population between 230,000 and 235,000 may levy an assessment with a vote of the people. The only city that meets this very narrow criteria is the City of Saginaw.

Senator Bieda’s bill would eliminate the population threshold so that any city above 15,000 could levy a special assessment for police and fire under the Act with a vote of its electorate.  We are grateful to Sen. Bieda for introducing this important legislation and the committee chair, Sen. Robertson, for taking it up.

It now heads to the full Senate for consideration.

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 morning the Senate Reforms, Restructuring and Reinventing Committee reported a package of bills, Senate Bills 541-545, that make positive clarifying changes to PA 152 of 2011, the Publicly Funded Health Insurance Contribution Act.

Senate Bill 541 would amend the definition of “medical benefit plan”, which currently excludes benefits provided to individuals retired from a public employer. The bill also would exclude a public employer’s contributions to a fund used for the sole purpose of funding health care benefits available to public employees or elected public officials only upon retirement or separation from service.

Senate Bill 542 would amend the requirements regarding the cap on the dollar limit that a public employer may pay toward health care costs. The bill would also increase the multiplier used to calculate the cap on the total dollar amount that a public employer may pay toward health care costs for individual and spouse coverage;include individual plus one nonspouse dependent coverage within family coverage for cap calculation purposes; include elected officials in calculation of the cap; and exclude from calculation of the cap employees or elected officials who declined coverage.

Senate Bill 543 would amend provisions that allow a public employer to opt for a percentage limit on its medical plan contributions, instead of complying with the dollar amount limits, for a medical benefit plan coverage year. Under this option, a public employer may not pay more than 80% of the total annual costs of all of the medical benefit plans it offers or contributes to for its employees and elected public officials.

Senate Bill 544 would require any contracts or other agreements in effect on September 27, 2011, to conform to contribution limits under the Publicly Funded Health Insurance Contribution Act. Currently, this applies to agreements in effect on September 15, 2011.

Senate Bill 545 would modify a provision that allows a local unit of government to exempt itself from the Act’s requirements by a two-thirds vote of its governing body each year, and requires a two-thirds vote to extend an exemption to a new year. The bill would require an exemption or extension vote to take place before the beginning of the medical benefit plan coverage year.

The League is supportive of these changes as they are important clarifications that will help with PA 152 compliance and interpretation from the Department of Treasury. The legislation now heads to the full Senate for consideration.

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 morning the House Tax Policy Committee heard testimony on Senate Bills 489 and 490, bills that are the first “fix” bills from the personal property tax (PPT) reform package that passed in December. The bills clarify the process for a businesses to claim exemptions under the legislation.

The League has been an active part of a drafting group of local government and business representatives who have been working on bills that would clarify the process for claiming PPT exemptions under the new legislation.

Beginning December 31, 2013, businesses will be eligible to claim a “small parcel” PPT exemption if the total value of their personal property in a tax collecting unit is $80,000 (true cash value) or less.  The remainder of the package does not go into effect until December 31, 2015; however, the package is contingent on the passage of a statewide vote in August 2014.

The League was neutral on the bills as they do reflect the work of the drafting group. You can view a copy of the League’s letter to the House Tax Policy Committee here: house tax policy 9_13 We also included a copy of the letter the League sent to Lt. Governor Brian Calley after the package passed in December: calley ltr final

We are expecting additional legislation this fall to fix other outstanding issues including the essential services assessment and how we deal with tax capture districts. The committee is expected to vote on the legislation next 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

This morning the Senate Reforms, Restructuring and Reinventing Committee unanimously reported Senate Bill 387, legislation that would amend the Worker’s Disability Compensation Act to include a reserve or auxiliary police officer as an employee of the State for purposes of the Act when he or she was performing duties in that capacity.

In general we find this legislation to be positive. While it does expand worker’s compensation it makes these officers employees of the state thus putting the responsibility on the state to pay for any claims.

The legislation now heads to the Senate floor for further consideration.

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

CALL MISS-DIG. Under the legislation passed today by the Senate Energy & Technology Committee a local unit of government faces penalties if they do not call the MISS-DIG system when beginning a project that involves digging. If a local unit does call MISS-DIG there is no liability.

This afternoon the Senate Energy and Technology Committee unanimously reported Senate Bills 539 and 540.  Originally the legislation last session would have entirely exempted any action under the MISS-DIG Act from government immunity. That was problematic for us, so the fee structure arose as a result of many discussions with the Senate and the Governor’s office, as well as utility stakeholders. The League testified that we always have concerns with expanding government immunity.  Given, however, the inclination of the legislation to create an exception to governmental immunity, this is an extremely narrow exception.

The legislation has wide support from many of the stakeholders in the process, and we will continue to work on this as it heads to the Senate floor.

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 morning the House took testimony on PA 295 of 2008, part of the 2008 energy package that specifically deals with energy efficiency and renewable energy.  The League was supportive of the 2008 package, and as a member of the Michigan Energy Michigan Jobs Coalition continues to support energy efficiency and renewable energy measures.

We submitted written testimony to the committee of the importance of energy efficiency and renewable energy that you can view here: energy & tech memj 9_13

The League has identified sustainability as one of the eight key assets for creating vibrant communities, and we continue to promote sustainability efforts in our Green Communities Challenge program.

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 one to qualify for funding under the Economic Vitality Incentive Program (EVIP) is due today, October 1, 2013. Category one is accountability and transparency; i.e., dashboard and citizens guide.

The dashboard template and F65 Citizen’s Guide are available on Treasury’s website. Category one is substantially similar to last year; however you are additionally required to include a listing of debt service requirements.

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

This week the League will be in Washington DC to meet with Congressman Camp and Levin to discuss the critical nature of retaining the federal tax exemption on municipal bonds. Congressman Camp is the Chairman of the Powerful Ways and Means Committee and Congressman Levin is the ranking member, so both are in powerful positions on this issue which is heating up since tax reform has been tied to lifting the debt ceiling in the next couple of weeks. We will also be urging them to support the Marketplace Fairness Act which would bring sales tax collection parity to online retailers, generating hundreds of millions of lost revenue to Michigan. The bill passed the Senate this spring.

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