Last week the League met with the Lieutenant Governor to discuss the latest details on personal property tax.

In short the plan includes the following:

 – Local units of government can levy an essential services assessment (ESA) on industrial real property to replace 100% of lost PPT revenue for police and fire. The specifics of the formula are yet to be given.

– The ESA is an option for businesses. They can either continue to pay PPT OR opt into the ESA.    

– They intend to replace 80% of everything else (not police and fire) using a percentage of the use tax. It would require a statewide vote of the people to allow the authority to take a portion of the use tax. They are using the battery credits as a barometer for the amount they’ll need in the use tax, but they are saying it would be no more than 1.5% of the 6% use tax to replace PPT. According to the Department of Treasury, 1.5% of the use tax = $300 million. The estimated losses for all local units of government is $470 million.

– The formula for reimbursement will go into the statute, but the authority has broad power.
  
– It goes into effect Jan. 1, 2014 so the intent is the statewide vote in November of next year.

The legislature would like to complete this issue during the lame duck session, but we have a number of questions/concerns going forward. We will be detailing those concerns for the Lt. Governor’s office.

Samantha Harkins is the Director of State Affairs for the League and handles municipal finance and labor issues. She can be reached at 517-908-0306 or email at [email protected].