Bill Text: MI SB1515 | 2009-2010 | 95th Legislature | Chaptered
Bill Title: Economic development; other; room assessment cap for convention and visitors bureaus and enforcement of reporting requirements; increase and modify. Amends secs. 3 & 6 of 1980 PA 395 (MCL 141.873 & 141.876).
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 1-0)
Status: (Passed) 2010-12-29 - Assigned Pa 0283'10 With Immediate Effect [SB1515 Detail]
Download: Michigan-2009-SB1515-Chaptered.html
Act No. 283
Public Acts of 2010
Approved by the Governor
December 16, 2010
Filed with the Secretary of State
December 16, 2010
EFFECTIVE DATE: December 16, 2010
STATE OF MICHIGAN
95TH LEGISLATURE
REGULAR SESSION OF 2010
Introduced by Senator Birkholz
ENROLLED SENATE BILL No. 1515
AN ACT to amend 1980 PA 395, entitled “An act relating to the promotion of convention business or tourism in municipalities in this state; to provide for tourism or convention marketing programs in municipalities through nonprofit convention and tourist bureaus; to provide for the imposition and collection of assessments on the owners of transient facilities to support tourism or convention marketing programs; to provide for the disbursement of the assessments; to establish the functions and duties of the department of commerce; and to prescribe remedies and penalties,” by amending sections 3 and 6 (MCL 141.873 and 141.876), section 3 as amended by 1996 PA 589.
The People of the State of Michigan enact:
Sec. 3. (1) A bureau that intends to establish a marketing program and assessment district shall file a marketing program notice with the director. The marketing program notice shall state that the bureau proposes to create a marketing program under this act and cause an assessment to be collected from owners of transient facilities within the assessment district to pay the costs of the marketing program.
(2) The marketing program notice shall describe the structure, membership, and activities of the bureau.
(3) The marketing program notice shall describe the marketing program to be implemented by the bureau with the assessment revenues, specify the amount of the assessment proposed to be levied, which, except as provided in this subsection, shall not exceed 5% of the room charges in the applicable payment period, and describe the municipalities comprising the assessment district.
(4) Except as provided in section 10, an area shall not be included in the marketing program notice filed under this act and the assessment district specified in the notice if the area is part of an existing assessment district under this act for which a marketing program is in effect.
(5) If on the date of the mailing of the marketing program notice under this act an excise tax or other tax based on a room charge is not being collected, a municipality included in the marketing program notice shall not be subject to the collection of an excise tax imposed under 1974 PA 263, MCL 141.861 to 141.867, or another tax based on a room charge.
(6) If a part of a municipality is subject to an assessment under the convention and tourism marketing act, 1980 PA 383, MCL 141.881 to 141.889, that part of the municipality shall not be included in a marketing program notice or assessment district under this act.
(7) Simultaneously with the filing of the marketing program notice with the director, the bureau shall mail a copy of the notice, by registered or certified mail, to each owner of a transient facility located in the assessment district specified in the notice, in care of the respective transient facility. In assembling the list of owners to whom the notices shall be mailed, the bureau shall use any data that is reasonably available to the bureau.
Sec. 6. (1) The assessment revenues collected pursuant to this act shall not be state funds. The money shall be deposited in a bank or other depository in this state, in the name of the bureau, and shall be disbursed only for the expenses properly incurred by the bureau with respect to the marketing programs developed by the bureau under this act.
(2) The financial statements of the bureau shall be audited at least annually by a certified public accountant. A copy of the audited financial statements shall be mailed to each owner not more than 150 days after the close of the bureau’s fiscal year. The financial statements shall include a statement of all assessment revenues received by the bureau during the fiscal year in question and include the amount of compensation for the chief executive director of the bureau and shall be accompanied by a detailed report, certified as correct by the chief operating officer of the bureau, describing the marketing programs implemented or, to the extent then known, to be implemented by the bureau.
(3) Copies of the audited financial statements and the certified report shall simultaneously be mailed to the director, who shall make it available to the public on the internet. If the bureau fails to submit copies of the audited financial statements and the certified report to the director as provided in this subsection, the director or his or her designee shall mail a demand letter to the bureau requesting copies of the audited financial statements and the certified report with a copy of that demand letter forwarded to the attorney general. If the director or his or her designee does not receive copies of the audited financial statement and the certified report described in this subsection within 90 days of the demand letter, upon notice by the director or the attorney general, for the period of noncompliance with this subsection, the bureau shall not expend any portion of the assessment collected during the period of noncompliance with this subsection. The attorney general may assist the director in enforcing the provisions of this act.
(4) If the bureau fails to provide the copies of the audited financial statement and the certified report within 90 days of the demand letter as provided in subsection (3), the bureau is responsible for a state civil infraction and may be ordered to pay a civil fine of not more than $10,000.00 and, in addition, the attorney general may bring action to dissolve the bureau as provided by law.
This act is ordered to take immediate effect.
Secretary of the Senate
Clerk of the House of Representatives
Approved
Governor
