Effectiveness of Brownfield Credits (Don't Reduce the Credit!)

Yesterday, I testified about Brownfield Credits in the House Tax Policy Committee.  Brownfield tools have been the most successful economic development tool.  Brownfield Credits and TIF can make the difference between a project happening and not happening – the difference between new jobs and investments coming to a community or not coming to a community.  The Senate has passed legislation that will reduce the total available Brownfield credits by $10 million and the League indicated opposition to this unless the money is going to revenue sharing.  Otherwise, cutting revenue sharing and cutting Brownfields combines to hurt community finances for services and hurt community economic development. Examples of the effectiveness of Brownfield credits include:

-          In Detroit $280 million in MBT tax credits will leverage $6 BILLION in investment and create 13,000 jobs. That's 21 times the return on investment.

-          Monroe has investment values of over $100 million and job creation and preservation of over 320 jobs in the City of Monroe (a community of 22,000 residents). 

-          Ann Arbor has $150 million of investments using the Brownfield tool, more than $40 million in lower town alone for MBT credits (600,000 sq feet of mixed use for a Kroger/CVS/dry cleaning site).

-          In Kalamazoo, $11.9 million in MBT credits have lead to 1400-1500 jobs created or retained and $177 - $192 million in private investment.

-          For the Dearborn Town Center, $9.6 milion in MBT Credits will lead to investments exceeding  $67.5 million.

-          In the City of Grand Rapids, $80 million in MBT credits created 7,360 jobs, leveraged private investment of over $1 billion, and redeveloped 275.55 acres.