Inside 208

On Thursday September 27 at 9am the House Transportation Committee is expected to hold a hearing on the proposed Regional Transit Authority (RTA) for Southeast Michigan. The hearing is expected to be testimony only. The League will be there to testify in support of the RTA. Currently RTA legislation (SB’s 909, 911, [...]

Information regarding a new round of EPA grant funding for a technical assistance program for brownfield impacted communities has recently been announced.  The deadline for proposals is Nov. 14, 2012.  This is a very small grant program, and will take a concerted effort by a community to apply. The EPA, Office [...]

Earlier this year, Michigan received $97.2 million as part of a nationwide lawsuit regarding mortgage foreclosure practices.  This spring, after negotations between the Legislature and Michigan Attorney General Schuette, legislation was enacted (Public Act 296 of 2012) allocating use of the funds. Of the $97.2 million, $25 million is being [...]

This morning the House Tax Policy Committee passed House Bill 4348, a bill that would create a property tax exemption for all disabled veterans. This legislation would have an indeterminate but potentially significant impact on the revenue of local units of government depending on the scope of the exemption. The [...]

This morning the Senate Reforms, Restructuring and Reinventing held a hearing on House Bills 5196 and 5274, bills that create new posting requirements for local units of government. House Bill 5196 requires pubilc entities to post information regarding job classifcations of all its employees including total FTEs, annual wages and [...]

The House Regulatory Reform Committee took testimony and passed out of committee HB 5877 (Denby, R-Fowlerville).  This bill amends the Michigan liquor control code dealing with redevelopment liquor licenses.  According to a recent determination by the Liquor Control Commission, only businesses in cities are eligible for redevelopment liquor licenses (click [...]

NLC has released a report on their annual survey on city fiscal conditions. While cities continue to confront the challenges associated with the economic downturn, a majority of city finance officers report that their cities are better able to meet financial needs in 2012 than in 2011.  What happens at [...]

Recently the League staff attended a meeting with the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) to discuss how they intend to implement the new federal transportation funding law, MAP-21, which Congress passed this summer. The new law makes several changes to the categories on federal funding and provides some additional flexibility [...]

SB 810 currently in the Senate Local Government and Elections committee would require a village regular election to be held at the general November election. The bill has had one committee hearing and another one is expected this week or next. SB 810 is also tie-barred to SB 811 which [...]

At the November 6, 2012 general election a number of ballot initiatives will be presented to Michigan voters. The Citizens Research Council (CRC) has issued a comprehensive review of Proposal 1, the initiative to repeal PA 4 of 2011, the Local Government and School District Fiscal Accountability Act. The analysis [...]