Inside 208

A series of bills amending the new personal property tax reform effort were signed by the Governor this month.  House Bills 5525-5527, 5545, and 5176 were all signed with immediate effect over the past two weeks. The bulk of this package of bills arose from Treasury’s initial experience, early this...

The House Tax Policy committee today reported House Bill 5578 with a bi-partisan 11-2 vote.  Following multiple committee hearings spanning the past six months, today’s positive committee vote had been anticipated, based upon the amount of work done by the sponsor and local government advocates. As the committee vice-chair, Rep. Dave...

The National League of Cities released a new report Paying for Local Infrastructure in a New Era of Federalism. Declining funding, increasing mandates and misaligned priorities at the federal and states levels have put responsibility for infrastructure on local governments. But what ability do cities have to take up this...

The Michigan House and Senate Appropriations committees made their opening moves on the state budget this week by reporting the full budget bills to the floors of their respective chambers. Following expected floor action on these bills in the coming week or two, each chamber will review the other’s proposal and...

The Michigan Department of Treasury has asked us to share some information detailing changes to the Personal Property Tax local government reimbursements for 2016-17 budget preparation. Treasury has prepared a document below and requested the Michigan Municipal League pass it along to our members. If you have any questions, there is contact...

Michigan Road Preservation Association Annual City County Workshop will be held on April 7, 2016 in Lansing. The workshop will explore the best practice of pavement preservation. Attendees will learn: • Best treatments to use at each point along the pavement deterioration curve • Technical advantages and specifications for specific...

The Michigan Senate voted overwhelmingly today to send a seven-bill package over to the House that would allow separate millages for library purposes to opt-out of tax capture situations.  Senate Bills 579 and 619-624 moved out of the Senate this morning despite strong opposition from local government groups, including the...

In addition to the Presidential Primary on Tuesday, three Michigan House districts held special general elections to fill vacancies.  The three districts that held special elections were the 75th in the city of Grand Rapids, the 80th in Allegan County and the 82nd district in Lapeer County.  With these seats filled,...

Congress is currently finalizing appropriations requests for FY 2017 and you have only one week to tell Congress to support TIGER and Federal Transit Administration’s (FTA) Capital Investment programs. Please consider supporting a fully funded TIGER and Capital Investment Programs by signing onto T4A’s nationwide support letter. Deadline: Friday February...

The Michigan House passed House Bill 5219 over to the Senate Tuesday afternoon on a 60-46 vote, following weeks of contentious debate over the original gag order provisions in PA 269/SB 571 and calls by the League and other local government organizations for a repeal of the offending language. The changes made...