As you know by now, the Governor released his budget this week. One of the important pieces that may not have been as prominent is the elimination of all of the state economic development tools in the new tax structure. The Governor has proposed to eliminate the existing Michigan Business Tax (MBT), and create a new Michigan Corporate Income Tax (6% to Michigan C Corporations). The new tax, though, does not include Brownfield, MEGA, historic or other current credits that communities use to assist developers in bringing jobs and private investments to Michigan communities.
The Lieutenant Governor and State Budget Director both said in their budget presentation that all the credits were interested-group based and were included for political reasons. League members are pushing for these credits to be maintained, though, to assist in the redevelopment of communities. Detroit Mayor Bing, in his statement on the budget, specifically mentioned several projects that were made possible specifically because of the Brownfield and historic credits.
The League will be working with other parties – the National Brownfield Association and the Michigan Historic Preservation Network – to convince legislators to keep these important community economic development tools in the tax act. When the Legislature when from the Single Business Tax to the MBT, these important credits were retained. We are pushing for that to happen again. Please contact your legislators about this, and let me know what you are telling them and what you are hearing.
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.
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