Inside 208

New Emergency Manager legislation passed the House late this evening. The new language was substituted into SB 865, which passed the Senate last year. The brand new language was just made available to legislators and interested parties. The new legislation would allow struggling local governments to have four options: emergency management;...

LANSING, Michigan – Despite hearing numerous questions and concerns from the Michigan Municipal League and other organizations, the Senate Finance Committee Wednesday passed House Bills 6022 and 6024-26. These bills create the reimbursement scheme for the personal property tax repeal as outlined in the Lt. Governor’s plan. The Lt. Governor’s...

This morning the Replace Don’t Erase Coalition, made up of the League and other local government organizations, prepared the attached letter to send to legislators. Rep. Opsommer, R-Dewitt, has offered to distribute this letter on the House floor. The letter is available here: PPT floor letter.pdf (147.10 kb) We continue...

You have an opportunity to help improve the accuracy of the National Broadband Map (NBM). The FCC recently released a request for comments to update and correct the Map.  Comments are due January 4, 2013; reply comments are due January 22, 2013. This is NOT an opportunity to simply complain...

On Wednesday morning the Senate Finance Committee has posted to hear testimony on House Bills 6022, 6024-26, bills that create the reimbursement scheme for personal property tax repeal as outlined in the Lt. Governor’s plan. The hearing is at 8 a.m. on Wednesday, December 12 in the ground floor hearing...

In the past several days, several federal news sources have indicated that Transportation Sectretary Ray LaHood will continue to serve into Obamas second term. LaHood had made prior statements that he likely wouldn’t stick around for a second term, but it appears as though he has had a change of...

The House has passed SB 1155 – 1158. These bills will allow for more funding from the Great Lakes Water Quality Bond Fund to be distributed to communities.  The Michigan Municipal League indicated support for these bills when they were in committee. Currently a maximum of $710.0 million must be...

Last night the House passed part of the personal property tax package, House Bills 6022, 6024-6026. These bills reflect the PPT reimbursement mechanism identified by the Lt. Governor. The bills were stripped down to their introduced versions and passed in order to satisfy the constitutional five day rule for legislation....

Yesterday the House failed to vote on HB 5780, a bill that would create an exemption to PA 54, the law barring retroactivity when contracts have expired. The legislation passed the House Local Government Commitee last week despite opposition from the League and the other local government associations. Due to...

After putting up the bill twice and not having enough votes, the House of Representatives finally passed SB 909, the main bill in the Regional Transit Authority package. The 3rd time was the charm, as the bill passed on a 57-50 vote (with 3 not voting). The bill passed with...