Inside 208

This morning the House Tax Policy Committee reported House Bills 4202 and 4203, bills that would force more online retailers to collect sales tax at the point of the sale. Current law requires customers to report online sales and pay taxes on those sales, but enforcement is not efficient. This...

On Tuesday the House General Government Appropriations Subcommittee held a hearing to discuss the revenue sharing formula.  The committee voted unanimously to request that the Citizens Research Council (CRC) do a study to review the current revenue sharing formula. The specific request from the committee is available here: EVIP Outline...

The Michigan Economic Development Corporation has announced the Downtown Infrastructure Grant Program (DIG) aimed at helping low and moderate income Michigan non-entitlement communities to improve their downtown infrastructure quality and reduce redevelopment costs for future projects. DIG, a Community Development Block Grant program, is designed to provide public infrastructure improvement...

As required in statute the Department of Treasury has released its Economic Vitality Incentive Program (EVIP) Information Notification letter that provides guidance for communities to qualify for payments under the FY 2014 EVIP program. You can find information Treasury’s website and on the League’s EVIP resource page. You can submit...

The US Department of Health and Human Services has just released a toolkit for local governments to understand and implement the Affordable Care Act. The toolkit includes an overview of the Affordable Care Act, a sample outreach and enrollment plan that you can tailor for your community, frequently asked questions...

The following is an excerpt of a message for Michigan communities from the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT): The Michigan Department of Transportation’s (MDOT’s) Local Agency Program (LAP) Unit is reminding local agencies of the permit requirements for local agency projects, originally outlined in a letter dated July 31, 2006....

MSHDA is accepting funding requests from CDBG non-entitlement local units of government for residential blight removal projects under the Community Development Division’s Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) Program. The CDBG program is federally funded by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. It’s open to cities, townships and villages...

The Federal Highway Administration staff is doing a webinar to provide technical assistance from the June 28th notification regarding ADA requirements to provide curb ramps. The webinar is August 20th from 2:00pm – 4:00pm. You can sign up for the webinar by clicking here. Attached is a letter with more information....

The US House of Representatives did not have the votes to pass the Transportation, Housing and Urban Development Budget this week. This is good news for local communities, as the House budget had steep cuts to many programs including a 50% reduction to already reduced CDBG funding, and zeroing out...

This week Senators Lindsay Graham (R-SC) and John Cornyn (R-TX) introduced an amendment that would have significant negative impacts to cities around the country, but was targeted at Detroit. The amendment, which is attached, was offered in the Senate Appropriations committee and would have prohibited federal funding to any local government that...