MAC’s Deena Bosworth lays out the counties’ position on the need for tax-capture reform in this story from Port Huron on the workings of downtown development authorities in St. Clair County:

“These are unelected officials that are spending money on whatever they see fit … It should not be up to an unelected board to capture however much tax money they want and use it however they see fit.”

Tax-capture reform will be a priority for MAC in the 2015 legislative session. As always, please be sure to share with us your local experiences and input via email to melot@micounties.org. The more data and experience we can provide lawmakers, the more powerful our lobbying effort becomes.

For more background on tax-capture laws and MAC’s position them, review this briefing paper. (Please note you must be a registered member of the MAC website to access MAC briefing papers and other key documents. Be sure to register today at http://www.micounties.org/index.php/private-site/login?view=registration)

Tax reform, protecting Medicaid and immigration reform are just three of several 2015 legislative priorities for the National Association of Counties.

As NACo recently reported, “The 2015 legislative priorities are tax reform, protecting the federal-state-local partnership for Medicaid, transportation reauthorization, approval of the Marketplace Fairness Act, funding for Payment In Lieu of Taxes and Secure Rural Schools, rejection of the ‘Waters of the U.S.’ proposal rule and immigration reform that addresses issues impacting county government.”

MAC members may recall coverage of the “Waters of the U.S.” issue in the October 2014 edition of Michigan Counties (see page 6).