Inside 208

Budget subcommittees in both the House and Senate were hard at work last week wrapping up much of the initial work on their respective appropriation responses to the Governor’s FY17-18 proposed budget. Responding to requests for additional funding from the League and other local government groups, the House General Government [...]

This week the Senate Transportation Subcommittee passed SB 148 and the House Transportation Subcommittee passed HB 4242. Each of these bills appropriates just over $4.3 Billion in transportation revenue to MDOT, counties and cities and villages. Each of these budgets has a baseline appropriation of $491.2 million dedicated to cities [...]

Legislation that would ban elected government officials from voting remotely through Skype or conference call failed to get majority support in the House Committee on Oversight this week. House Bill 4184 is a reintroduction of legislation which passed the House and Senate last term, but died after the House declined to [...]

This week SB 157 was voted out of Michigan Competitiveness Committee on 4-1 party-line vote.The bill states a public entity could not exclude any pipe and piping materials when soliciting bids for a public works project if the pipe and piping materials meets or exceeds the recognized standards for pipe [...]

The Governor has proposed Lead and Copper Rule reforms saying “The federal rule is dumb and dangerous. We need a Michigan rule that is smart and safe.” The proposed changes will require both administrative rule changes and statutory changes by the legislature. Proposed Administrative Rule Changes: Phase in a reduction [...]

We know there are individuals and agency’s making positive progress in the management of public infrastructure; these efforts need to be recognized!  Click the following link for a  memorandum announcing the request for nominations of individuals and organizations for the Michigan Transportation Asset Management Council’s Carmine Palombo Individual Award and [...]

On Wednesday the Senate passed a five-bill package (SB 111, SB 112, SB 113, SB 114 & SB 115) which would allow “transformational” redevelopment projects to capture state tax when a gap is identified between the financial viability of a development project and the cost of building that development. The legislation requires [...]

After over 12 hours of behind the scenes negotiations, the Michigan House ended up voting down a third alternative for an income tax cut in the early hours of Thursday morning.  The amendments that were proposed to HB 4001 H-3 would have lowered the state’s income tax rate from 4.25% down by [...]

The House Appropriations subcommittee on General Government, which includes the appropriation for revenue sharing, met yesterday to begin their consideration of Governor Snyder’s budget recommendation for the upcoming 2017-18 fiscal year.  This week’s subcommittee hearing centered on revenue sharing and the Municipal League was invited to present our position on [...]

***UPDATE:    The Michigan House just adjourned session for the day (Tuesday) after adopting a substitute version H-3 for HB 4001 that would reduce the income tax rate from 4.25% down to 3.9% by January 1, 2021 and stopping at that point.  Following hours of caucus and floor discussion, the...