Now that the Brownfield and Historic Tax Credits have been eliminated (once the Corporate Income Tax bill is signed by the Governor), the League has been working on two fronts to ensure that the projects that relied on these credits are still feasible.
On the funding front, we received very good news late last week. Somewhere between $75 and $100 million will be allocated to projects that previously received Brownfield, Historic, and MEGA credits. That should go a long way towards ensuring that these projects still happen and redevelopment in urban communities continues.
On the second front, we are working as part of a workgroup to come up with a program to allocate the new dollars appropriated. The workgroup has submitted a draft to the Governor and Lieutenant Governor, and their offices are now sharing it with stakeholders to get input. It is attached below. The League has been officially invited to provide input, so I look forward to your comments. My take so far is that this is a good beginning for communities. It allows for grants and loans, local govenments can have involvement as they see fit. Potential concerns include the possibly clarification that these dollars are focused in urban areas to ensure that they are not going to greenfields (as MEGA grants have in the past), and the concern about how much flexibility the MEDC has in administering this fund. It has also been raised that we want to make sure that the language on “local participation” is not mandatory and does not force locals to be “all in” before the MEDC will consider allocating dollars. This is going on now, and is causing problems in many communities.
Please let me know your thoughts ASAP on this plan, and we will provide feedback early next week.
Andy Schor is the Assistant Director of State Affairs for the Michigan Municipal League. Contact him at (517) 908-0300 or by email at aschor@mml.org.
Urban Revitalization Draft Legislative Proposal 5-11-11.pdf (1.73 mb)
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