2014 Senate Bill 829 ↩

House Roll Call 160: Passed

To replace a local “essential services special assessment” (tax) with a state version. The local version was authorized by a <a href=" http://www.legislature.mi.gov/documents/2011-2012/billanalysis/Senate/pdf/2011-SFA-1065-N.pdf">2012 personal property tax reform law</a> to reimburse local governments for lost revenue from the tax cuts in that 2012 law. Senate Bill 822 would increase an earmark of the state use tax to essentially replace all of the foregone local government revenue instead of most of it. The revenue the state gives up to the earmark would be replaced by imposing the tax authorized by this bill on some but not all of the businesses getting a tax cut. In addition, the political appointees on the board of the state economic development agency empowered to grant exemptions to particular firms they select. For any of this to happen voters must approve related changes to the state use tax in an August, 2014 ballot initiative; the current proposal is intended to forestall local government opposition to that measure.