Action Alert

October 20, 2011

Save Brownfield Funding: Tell Legislature Not to Take Money Away From Redevelopment

There is a movement in the State House to reduce the ability of communities to receive state dollars for brownfield projects by not allowing obsolete or blighted properties to qualify for new state dollars. The vote will be taken on these bills in committee next week! Your State Representative needs to hear from you NOW to oppose the amendments to SB 567.

As you know, the Legislature and Governor eliminated the Brownfield and Historic Tax Credits. They then funded a line in the budget of $100 million for economic development incentives.

Now, the Legislature is debating legislation that would create the Community Revitalization Program. As passed by the Senate, this program will give out the $100 million to communities for revitalization. There are several conditions that must be considered, including density, job creation, existing infrastructure, etc. The League is very supportive of this because it ensures state dollars go to redevelopment projects and helping to revitalize our communities and our state.

This week, an amendment was proposed that would scale this program back to only contaminated properties, and not allow it to be used to redevelop blighted and obsolete buildings. This would drastically reduce the ability to have state dollars used in redevelopment projects around the state and could put many future projects at risk. This amendment would greatly reduce the effectiveness of this new program and break the promise made to replace the brownfield credits with state appropriations.

The representatives listed below are on the House Commerce Committee. Remember, the vote will be taken on these bills in committee next week! Please call or email your state representative and tell them to pass the Community Revitalization legislation (SB 567) without these amendments which will roll back the brownfield program and cost jobs and investments in our communities and our state.

House Commerce Committee Members:

Rep.	Wayne Schmidt	WayneSchmidt@house.mi.gov	(517) 373-1766
Rep.	Sharon Tyler	SharonTyler@house.mi.gov	(517) 373-1796
Rep.	Jud Gilbert II	JudGilbert@house.mi.gov	(517) 373-1790
Rep.	Marty Knollenberg	martyknollenberg@house.mi.gov	(517) 373-1783
Rep.	Cindy Denby	CindyDenby@house.mi.gov	(517) 373-8835
Rep.	Pete Lund	PeteLund@house.mi.gov	(517) 373-0843
Rep.	Mike Shirkey	MikeShirkey@house.mi.gov	(517) 373-1775
Rep.	Jeff Farrington	JeffFarrington@house.mi.gov	(517) 373-7768
Rep.	Ben Glardon	BenGlardon@house.mi.gov	(517) 373-0841
Rep.	Deb Shaughnessy	DebShaughnessy@house.mi.gov	(517) 373-0853
Rep.	Pat Somerville	patsomerville@house.mi.gov	(517) 373-0855
Rep.	Dale Zorn	dalewzorn@house.mi.gov	(517) 373-2617
Rep.	Jon Switalski	jonswitalski@house.mi.gov	(517) 373-1772
Rep.	Tim Bledsoe	timbledsoe@house.mi.gov	(517) 373-0154
Rep.	Harold Haugh	haroldhaugh@house.mi.gov	(517) 373-0854
Rep.	Vicki Barnett	vickibarnett@house.mi.gov	(517) 373-1793
Rep.	Paul Clemente	paulclemente@house.mi.gov	(517) 373-0140
Rep.	Jim Townsend	jimtownsend@house.mi.gov	(517) 373-3818
Rep.	John Olumba	johnolumba@house.mi.gov	(517) 373-0144

If you have questions about this, please feel free to contact the League's Andy Schor at (517) 908-030 or aschor@mml.org