Bills Passed Will Correct Some Of Battle Creek's Budget Shortfall

CORRECTION: There was some confusion regarding a news release sent titled “Nofs bills rectifying $2.4M shortfall to Battle Creek head to governor.” The sponsor of Senate Bills 1222 and 1223, Sen. Mike Nofs, R-Battle Creek, has issued the following statement regarding the release:

“It should be noted that the city of Battle Creek has experienced two different personal-property-tax-related revenue issues in 2018. Senate Bills 1222 and 1223 specifically deal with reimbursement of $2.15 million in revenue that should have been captured by the Battle Creek Downtown Development Authority and Tax Increment Finance Authority. State law allows communities to designate such districts to capture tax revenue to be used for a limited scope to finance public improvements and encourage development based on their individual community plans. I recognize that tax law is extremely complicated. I apologize if the press release on Senate Bills 1222 and 1223 was confusing. It should be noted that the city of Battle Creek will still need to trim $2.4 million out of its budget by no fault of its own.”

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The City of Battle Creek still faces a $2.4 million budget shortfall for this fiscal year, but it looks like some problems have been rectified legislatively.

During the marathon Lame Duck session the Michigan Legislature took part in Thursday into the sunrise Friday morning, Senate Bills 1222 and 1223 were among the many bills passed. The bills were sponsored by Senator Mike Nofs of Battle Creek, and were designed to correct a "recently identified deficiency" in a reimbursement formula put in place after the state eliminated the industrial personal property tax.

Senator Nofs says that when he sponsored legislation in 2014 to phase out the "job-killing" personal property tax, it included a formula to reimburse municipalities for the money they would lose. However, that formula ended up shorting the Battle Creek Tax Increment Finance Authority District and the Downtown Development Authority.

SBs 1222 and 1223 are corrections to that formula to help reimburse $2.15 million of those funds to Battle Creek.

After being passed Thursday night, the bills were forwarded to Governor Rick Snyder for his signature.