2013 Senate Bill 257 ↩

House Roll Call 284: Passed

To expand the items that a “Business Improvement Zone” can spend money on, increase from seven years to 10 years the time one of these zones can operate without reauthorization, revise voting rules in a way that (potentially) reduces the proportion of property owners in the district needed to impose a zone's tax-and-spending powers, increase the proportion of owners needed to dissolve one, reduce notice and public meeting requirements required to establish a zone, allow the "zone" to sell services to particular property owners, increase penalties for not paying the "special assessments" these entities impose, and make other changes. These zones may be created by owners of a majority of the property in a certain area (not the same as the majority of owners), and have the power to impose property taxes (special assessments) to pay for the debt they incur to pay for projects that are supposed to benefit the property owners. Reportedly the city of Detroit is the main focus of the bill, but the "zones" are not limited to Detroit.