The Governor was able to find just enough votes to secure $69 million annually to fund his Renew Michigan Proposal. The final proposal does not increase tipping fees and does not negatively impact municipal budgets.

HB 4991 reduces the amount of income tax revenue earmarked to the School Aid Fund each year to offset additional revenue from increased sales tax collections from online purchases. This swap provides a permanent funding source for the Renew Michigan Fund.

Beginning in 2018-19 and in each subsequent Fiscal Year, $69 million would be moved and deposited into the newly created Renew Michigan Fund. Each fiscal year, 65 percent of the Renew Michigan revenue would be used for environmental clean-ups (brownfields and emerging contaminates). Another 13 percent would be used for waste management purposes and the remaining 22 percent would be for various recycling purposes (county planning and grants to local government).

The bill would also increase distributions to the Michigan Transportation Fund for the 2018-19 Fiscal Year and the 2019-20 Fiscal Year by $114 million and $143 million, respectively. This is not new money. This is an acceleration of the distribution of $600 million in income tax revenue that was dedicated to roads as part of the 2015 funding package

Additionally, HB 5898, the Governor’s proposal to charge residents and commercial user a water fee to fund a statewide emergency fund and capital improvement projects has died. The League was opposed to this legislation because it took money from our local systems and redistributed a significant portion of that revenue across the state.

John LaMacchia is the Assistant Director of State and Federal Affairs for the League handling transportation, infrastructure, energy and environment issues. He can be reached at [email protected] or 517-908-0303.