CHICAGO — Michigan would gain a statewide port authority with the ability to bond and the Detroit Wayne County Port Authority would gain expanded bonding abilities under legislation that could be introduced by the end of the year.
Sen. Mike Kowell, R-White Lake Township, said he has crafted a bill that would create a state of Michigan port authority that could issue bonds for a variety of economic development projects.
“This would allow [the state authority] to issue bonds and go out and create these terrific projects,” Kowell said in a telephone interview.
Another proposal would allow the Detroit Wayne County authority issue bonds to finance projects located beyond the waterfront, where it is currently restricted, he said.
“For Wayne County, the port authority has been extremely successful, and they’re very restricted,” he said. “We’d like to expand it a bit, maybe throughout the county.”
Kowell said he wants to introduce the bills before the end of the year or soon after.
The two bills are among several pieces of bond-related legislation that the Legislature could consider before the end of the year. Lawmakers are meeting for only five more days before the November election.
Hearings began Wednesday on a measure to ease the state’s certificate of need process to allow for a new hospital. Meanwhile, a controversial three-bill package that is considered key to Detroit’s fiscal stability suffered a setback Wednesday when it failed to come up in the full Senate and was sent back to committee.
Senate Major Leader Randy Richardville, R-Monroe, Wednesday failed to call for a vote on legislation that would allow Detroit to create an independent bond-issuing authority to run the city’s troubled public lighting department and create a new revenue stream to back bonds.
The legislation would allow the Motor City and 40 other municipalities create authorities to operate their lighting departments. It would also set aside a piece of Detroit’s utility tax to fund the department and back the bonds. A third part of the legislation would eliminate a scheduled rollback of Detroit’s income-tax rate and set aside some of the revenue to fund the police budget.
Richardville opted not to call the bills yesterday saying it lacked enough Democratic votes.
“The Senate majority leader was prepared to bring up the bills yesterday but unfortunately there were not enough votes on the other side of the aisle for the bills to pass,” said Richardville spokesman Amber McCann.
Richardville referred the bill back to the Government Operations Committee, where is chair, and said he would not call for hearings in the future.
“He was rather frustrated with the events in session yesterday and is encouraging the Detroit delegation to offer up an alternative solution,” McCann said.
The Republican-led House passed the measure a few months ago, and it also has the support of GOP Gov. Rick Snyder. The governor’s support is expected to help keep the legislation alive, and Kowell said he expected it would come back up for another vote.
At least one Detroit Democrat blamed the failure on a lack of Republican, not Democratic, support.
“It amazes me that the governor made this issue a priority but cannot get the demonstrative support from Senate Republicans,” state Sen. Tupac Hunter, a Democrat from Detroit, said in a statement issued after Wednesday’s failure.
Meanwhile, the Senate Economic Development Committee Thursday held initial hearings on Senate Bill 1269, which would ease the state’s current certificate of need process and could allow for more health care facilities to be built in the state.
The measure, which is also sponsored by Kowell, is aimed at allowing Flint-based McLaren Health Care Corp. to move some of its beds to a new town from the city of Pontiac.
The Flint-based McLaren wants to move 200 beds from a Pontiac facility to Independence Township.
The Michigan Department of Community Health, which considers the state’s certificate of needs, in June denied McLaren’s application, saying it would violate a rule that only allows bed transfers within two miles.
Kowell’s bill would eliminate the need for a certificate of need if the bed transfers met various criteria, and widens the area to eight miles from two.
The legislation would also expand the certificate of need commission to 13 from 11 members and make other changes to the existing certificate of need law.
“McLaren is willing to invest a large amount of money in Oakland County, so it makes a lot of sense,” Kowell said.
The legislation could ultimately allow more health care facilities to be built across the state, according to an analysis by the independent Senate Fiscal Agency. If passed, the bill would have little fiscal impact on the state, according to the fiscal agency.
It would not appear to expand the state’s Medicaid program, which is the state’s costliest health care program, and also would not likely boost tax revenue, as the creation of jobs for the project would likely come at the expense of other projects, the analysis said.
