Action Alert

March 7, 2011

House Tax Policy Committee to Discuss New Tax Plan to Eliminate Brownfield, Historic, MEGA Credits and Others

The League needs your help showing legislators why Michigan communities can't afford to lose some of our most valuable economic development tools!

The House Tax Policy Committee will be meeting this week to talk about the new tax plan – introduced into the House as bills HB 4361 and 4362 – and these bills do NOT include the tax credits that were in the old MBT such as Brownfield and Historic credits

In addition, the MEDC has indicated that they have shut down the MBT approval process for further evaluation, so no projects currently in the pipeline will be approved for credits.

The League is working with several groups to try to get the credits re-inserted but WE NEED YOUR HELP. The League plans to submit a report detailing successful projects due to Brownfield credits. If you have examples that have not yet been included, please send them to aschor@mml.org.

We also implore you to contact your legislators and members of the House Tax Policy Committee to make sure they understand the drastic impacts of eliminating these economic development tools.

If you need contact information for your local legislators go here. A list of the committee members is included below.

Click here for a sample letter that can be copied into the body of a personal e-mail.

You can also click here to use our online tool to automatically send a letter online.

Also, we welcome anyone interested in coming to Lansing to testify on these bills. The corporate income tax/business aspects will receive testimony on March 8 at 2:30 pm or when session ends, and on March 9 from 10:30 am until noon. Andy Schor is working with the Chair’s office to find the best time for our members to testify. Please let him know if you are interested by emailing him at aschor@mml.org.

House Tax Policy Committee:

Jase Bolger (R), Speaker of the House, 83rd District

Committee Members:
Judson S. Gilbert II (R), Committee Chair, 81st District
John J. Walsh (R), Majority Vice-Chair, 19th District
Kenneth B. Horn (R), 94th District
Jeff Farrington (R), 30th District
Frank Foster (R), 107th District
Lisa Posthumus Lyons (R), 86th District
Aric Nesbitt (R), 80th District
Margaret E. O'Brien (R), 61st District
Rick Olson (R), 55th District
Mark Ouimet (R), 52nd District
Bob Constan (D), Minority Vice-Chair, 16th District
Vicki Barnett (D), 37th District
Andrew J. Kandrevas (D), 13th District
Mark S. Meadows (D), 69th District
Jim Townsend (D), 26th District
Phil Cavanagh (D), 17th District
Rudy Hobbs (D), 35th District

David Mead, Committee Clerk
517-373-2013
dmead@house.mi.gov

If you have questions about this, please feel free to contact the League's Andy Schor at (517) 908-0300 or aschor@mml.org.