Inside 208

William Mathewson talks to League members about the Open Meetings Act at an education session Wednesday in Ann Arbor. View more photos here. ANN ARBOR, Michigan – The first of a series of new training weeks kicked off today with sessions on the state’s Freedom of Information Act, Open Meetings [...]

Just a reminder that the next EVIP deadline for consolidation of services is February 1, 2013. To qualify for this category of EVIP local units must prepare consolidation plans. Please see the League’s EVIP page for specific information. Please be aware of the following critical correction to the January/February 2013 [...]

This morning the Consensus Revenue Estimating Conference was held, and the House and Senate Fiscal Agencies as well as the State Budget Director reached a consensus on economic and revenue figures for the rest of Fiscal Year (FY) 2013, FY 2014 and FY 2015. The consensus included net general fund/general [...]

With Congress and the President passing legislation to avoid the fiscal cliff, cities had a significant victory in that they did not eliminate the tax exemption on federal municipal bonds. While this is great news for cities and villages, we still need to be vigilant as we head into the [...]

This morning Governor Rick Snyder signed the personal property tax reform package, Senate Bills 1065-1071 and House Bills 6022, 6024-6026. The new laws are viewable on the legislative website. As noted in previous posts the League will continue working with the Legislature and Governor’s office in the new legislative session [...]

The past few days Speaker Boehner and President Obama have indicated that they have put tax increases and debt reductions on the table beyond what they had previously stated they would accept, signaling a glimmer of hope that a resolution on the pending tax increases and spending cuts known as [...]

More than 100 municipal leaders attended a live chat hosted by the Michigan Municipal League Tuesday about bills approved in the lame duck session of the Michigan Legislature in recent weeks. During the live chat, led by the League’s Anthony Minghine and Samantha Harkins, Minghine started out explaining that the [...]

Speaker Boehner and the President had another meeting late last week, after a few days off and some intense rhetoric regarding their solutions on the fiscal cliff, the combination of the expiration of Bush-era tax credits and significant automatic budget cuts set to go into effect January 1. There have [...]

The Michigan House and Senate each passed new language that was substituted into SB 865. The bill would give communities in a financial emergency the option of (1) having a state-appointed emergency manager, (2) going into Chapter 9 bankruptcy, (3) mediation or (4) a consent agreement.  The Governor is expected [...]

Early Friday morning the Legislature passed a package of bills that reform the personal property tax. These bills contain significant changes over previous versions, and as a result the League took a neutral position. The bills are on the way to the Governor for his signature. The League participated in [...]