The House worked late into the night yesterday and will be returning this morning to finish work on a few major items. While navigating action on multiple issues, a significant step forward was achieved on our top priority. The Revenue Sharing Trust Fund (HB 4274 and 4275) passed the House last night by votes of 106-4. This is an incredible sign of support for this policy.
These bills would dedicate 8% of the 4% sales tax and place them in a trust fund specifically for statutory revenue sharing. We have long advocated to fully fund and protect revenue sharing under the law. These bills would go a long way to preserving resources that are currently being used to fund revenue sharing. There are three main components of the legislation:
- Create a Revenue Sharing Trust Fund and dedicate 8% of the 4% sales tax to statutory revenue sharing.
- Within the Trust Fund, create a new funding category that would restore payments to 1091 townships and 44 villages currently not receiving statutory revenue sharing at a rate of 1% of the total available funding.
- Distribute the remaining balance to cities, villages, townships, and counties currently receiving statutory revenue sharing payments in the same proportion as the FY23/24 budget.
We are extremely thankful for the effort by our sponsors, Representative O’Neal and Tisdale, to help move these bills forward in a bi-partisan manner. We are also very appreciative of the support that has been provided by the House Local Government and Municipal Finance Chair, John Fitzgerald, who has been a staunch advocate for this legislation.
These bills are now before the Senate. We look forward to working them and sending this legislation to the Governor for her signature.
Additionally, legislation that would create a Public Safety and Violence prevention fund is on the House agenda today. Like the Revenue Sharing Trust Fund, HB 4605 and 4606 would dedicate 1.5% of the 4% sales tax to cities, villages, townships, and counties.
Collectively, these four bills will secure over $700M in protected funding for local government.
John LaMacchia is the League’s director of state & federal affairs. He can be reached at [email protected] or 517-908-0303.