Tag: affordable housing

Five Stories that Matter in Michigan This Week – December 30, 2022

  1. NIL Legislation Takes Effect December 31, 2022

Michigan House Bill 5217 which was passed into law in 2020, takes effect December 31, 2022 and sets new standards for how student-athletes can earn compensation for the use of their name, image, and likeness (“NIL”) in Michigan.

Why it Matters: Student-athletes, covered higher education institutions, and businesses must ensure that NIL deal comply not only with NCAA rules and regulations, but also with the new standards that will apply in the State of Michigan starting in 2023. For example, higher education institutions are prohibited from paying a student-athlete compensation directly for the use of their NIL rights, or revoking or reducing a student-athlete’s athletic scholarship because they earned compensation from an NIL deal.

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  1. CRA Unveils Cannabis Market Taxation and Regulatory Compliance Analysis Grant Program

Stemming from the state’s 2022-2023 budget, the Michigan Cannabis Regulatory Agency must award a grant to a selected party to start a program that is intended to analyze tax reporting, collection, and regulatory compliance within the Michigan cannabis market and provides up to $500,000 for performing the required work.

Why it Matters: Illegal cannabis flooding the market is still a major issue that is troubling Michigan’s cannabis market. This new program will identify relevant areas with information gathered from tax reporting to investigate for possible misconduct and other regulatory noncompliance.

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  1. Michigan Department of Technology, Management and Budget Prevailing Wage Policy Upheld by Court of Claims

The Michigan Court of Claims sided with the state and ruled that DTMB did not violate the law when it implemented its prevailing wage policy on March 1, 2022.

Why it Matters: In July, 2021, the Associated Builders and Contractors of Michigan (“ABC”) filed a lawsuit against the State of Michigan with a motion for preliminary injunction asking the Court to enjoin DTMB from requiring prevailing wages for state contracts. ABC argued that Michigan cannot require the wage rate of its contractors because of the repeal of Michigan’s prevailing wage law in 2018. In October, the Michigan Court of Claims sided with the state. ABC has appealed the ruling. For the time being, pending the outcome of the appeal, DTMB’s prevailing wage policy remains in effect for construction projects financed in whole or in part by State of Michigan funds. Learn more on the subject.

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  1. Bills Seeking to Expand Affordable Housing in Michigan Are Passed

Governor Whitmer signed a package of bills (Senate Bills 362, 364, 422 and 432) intended to support the development of more affordable housing units in communities across Michigan, with a particular focus on creating new housing units in cities.

Why it Matters: Lack of affordable housing is a big problem in Michigan and throughout the country. From an economic standpoint, when there is a lack of affordable housing, it makes it difficult for employers to attract and retain workers. Data from the Resilient Homes Michigan coalition says that Michigan is short about 203,000 affordable rental homes for the 320,000 renting households in the state that have incomes at or below 30% of the median income for their area.

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  1. Officials Unveil $2 Million Grant to Support High-Tech Talent Workforce in Michigan

Earlier this month, Governor Whitmer along with officials from the Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity, Michigan Office of Future Mobility and Electrification, and the Detroit Regional Chamber, unveiled a two million dollar grant program to MichAuto to support and build up the high-tech talent workforce in Michigan.

Why it Matters: Investing in Michigan’s workforce and talent pipeline is key for the state to keep workers from leaving and relocating to other states. It builds on the state’s MI Future Mobility Plan to continue attracting businesses and workers to work in the state related to the future of transportation.

Related Practice Groups and Professionals

Higher Education | Ryan Kauffman
Business & Tax | Ed Castellani
Real Estate | Jared Roberts
Labor, Employment & Civil Rights | Aaron Davis

Five Stories that Matter in Michigan This Week – December 23, 2022

  1. New Bills Passed to Expand Affordable Housing in Michigan

Governor Whitmer recently signed a package of bills (Senate Bills 362, 364, 422 and 432) intended to support the development of more affordable housing units in communities across Michigan, with a particular focus on creating new housing units in cities.

Why it Matters: Lack of affordable housing is a big problem in Michigan and throughout the country. From an economic standpoint, when there is a lack of affordable housing, it makes it difficult for employers to attract and retain workers. According to the Resilient Homes Michigan coalition, Michigan is short about 203,000 affordable rental homes for the 320,000 renting households in the state that have incomes at or below 30% of the median income for their area.

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  1. Michigan Slips Slightly in Economic Benchmarking Report

Michigan dropped two spots, to 31st nationally, in the Business Leaders for Michigan’s annual benchmarking report that ranks states’ economic performance. While Michigan improved over last year in some key metrics, other states did as well, leading to Michigan falling slightly in the rankings.

Why it Matters: As the national economy softens, it’s more important than ever for Michigan business and government leaders to focus on sound economic policy to help maintain—and improve—the state’s competitiveness. The report highlighted, for example, how Ohio jumped from 33rd in the rankings last year to 23rd this year.

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  1. New NIL Legislation Takes Effect December 31, 2022

Michigan House Bill 5217 which was passed into law in 2020, takes effect December 31, 2022 and sets new standards for how student-athletes can earn compensation for the use of their name, image, and likeness (“NIL”) in Michigan.

Why it Matters: Student-athletes, covered higher education institutions, and businesses must ensure that NIL deal comply not only with NCAA rules and regulations, but also with the new standards that will apply in the State of Michigan starting in 2023. For example, higher education institutions are prohibited from paying a student-athlete compensation directly for the use of their NIL rights, or revoking or reducing a student-athlete’s athletic scholarship because they earned compensation from an NIL deal.

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  1. Cabinet Changes Announced for Governor Whitmer’s Second-Term

Governor Whitmer recently announced changes in leadership for several state departments. Some of the changes include Dan Eichinger taking over as acting director of the Department of Environmental, Great Lakes and Energy, Shannon Lott will become the acting director of the Department of Natural Resources, Michelle Lange chosen as the acting director of the Department of Technology, Management and Budget, and Brian Hanna will become director of the Cannabis Regulatory Agency.

Why it Matters: Further changes may be in the future as the new directors in their respective departments take over and implement their policies. Fraser Trebilcock attorneys will monitor and report on any important situations.

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  1. Officials Unveil $2 Million Grant to Support High-Tech Talent Workforce in Michigan

Earlier this month, Governor Whitmer along with officials from the Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity, Michigan Office of Future Mobility and Electrification, and the Detroit Regional Chamber, unveiled a two million dollar grant program to MichAuto to support and build up the high-tech talent workforce in Michigan.

Why it Matters: Investing in Michigan’s workforce and talent pipeline is key for the state to keep workers from leaving and relocating to other states. It builds on the state’s MI Future Mobility Plan to continue attracting businesses and workers to work in the state related to the future of transportation.

Related Practice Groups and Professionals

Real Estate | Jared Roberts
Higher Education | Ryan Kauffman
Business & Tax | Paul McCord
Election Law | Garett Koger

American Rescue Plan – Affordable Housing – HUD

The Biden Administration American Rescue Plan contains sizeable funding for affordable housing along with other policy proposals. It totals $231 Billion in funding in 3 key areas:

Produce, preserve, and retrofit over 1 million affordable housing units to be resilient, accessible, energy-efficient, and electrified. To do accomplish this Biden proposes funding with tax credits, formula funding, grants, and project-based rental assistance. Units would be targeted to households in underserved, rural and tribal communities.

Build 500,000 affordable housing units for low and middle-income buyers. This begins to address the remarkable housing shortage in the country. Funding would come from the proposed Neighborhood Homes Investment Act. $20 Billion.

Update and Upgrade Public Housing through $40 billion in capital funding.

Leveraging existing block grant programs to increase available tax credits for clean energy. For example, Biden proposes creating a $27 billion Clean Energy and Sustainable Accelerator.

HUD announced it will make available $5 billion in new grants to states and local government for rental assistance and development of affordable housing and other services to people experiencing homelessness. This translates in about $150 million for Michigan.

If you have any questions, please contact Mary Levine.

Mary P. Levine is an attorney with Fraser Trebilcock, focusing on affordable housing and community development. Mary was the former President and Secretary of the Greater Lansing Housing Commission (GLHC). She can be reached at mplevine@fraserlawfirm.com or (517) 377-0823.