[CPEO-BIF] Michigan tax breaks

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

[This article, compared to the Petoskey Pointe story that triggered this 
newgroup's October-November dialogue on Brownfields subsidies, 
demonstrates a move in Michigan toward targeting tax breaks to promote 
the public interest. While I would still argue that local governments do 
not always represent well the environmental justice communities that are 
typically impacted by both contamination and redevelopment, it 
represents progress. State subsidies are no longer automatic, on a first 
come, first serve basis. - LS]


Portage to vote on tax break for Treystar project

By Sarita Chourey
Kalamazoo Gazette (MI)
November 19, 2006

When it comes to brownfield projects, it's 'Show us your tax break, and 
we'll show you one of our own.'

That's what the state is telling municipalities as competition stiffens 
across Michigan for state tax relief for brownfield cleanup projects. 
The trend has become evident in Portage, where the City Council will 
vote on whether to approve the city's first local tax break for turning 
a brownfield into a commercial center.

The City Council will vote Tuesday on whether to give Treystar Holdings 
LLC a local tax break of $291,000 and to approve a state Single Business 
Tax credit of $470,000 to help with the cost of cleaning up a brownfield 
at the southeast corner of East Centre Avenue and Portage Road that was 
formerly a Clark gas station.

Municipalities' willingness to back brownfield projects with tax breaks 
has become important to the agency that awards state tax breaks for 
those projects.

"We decided that with far greater demand than what the law allows for 
credits, it made greater sense to do only those projects that 
communities determined to be desirable," said Michael Shore, spokesman 
for the Michigan Economic Development Corp.

"Previously, it was literally first-come-first-served, without community 
involvement. The state wants to support only those projects that the 
local community is fully supporting."

...

For the entire article, see
http://www.mlive.com/business/kzgazette/index.ssf?/base/business-3/1163914131219500.xml&coll=7

--


Lenny Siegel
Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
c/o PSC, 278-A Hope St., Mountain View, CA 94041
Voice: 650/961-8918 or 650/969-1545
Fax: 650/961-8918
<lsiegel@cpeo.org>
http://www.cpeo.org


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