Advocacy News – March 4, 2021
A midyear supplemental appropriation bill is headed to Governor Whitmer’s desk that includes more than $400 million in financial relief for Michigan Businesses. The Michigan Chamber testified in support of the legislation last week in committee stressing that the need for fair, financial relief is immediate.
Many businesses have been forced to completely close or dramatically restrict occupancy for almost 9 months. The legislation approved today will target relief to industries that have been included in Governor Whitmer’s shut down orders the longest.
The relief comes in different forms as follows:
- Direct Payments from the Department of Treasury
If a business qualifies, payments will be available using a formula based on 2020 property taxes or lease payments. Depending on how much income a business lost due to the pandemic will qualify them for a payment equal to or proportional to the amount of property taxes paid in 2020 or 17% or rent payments made in the same year.
$300 million has been set aside for this program.
- Deposit to the Unemployment Trust Fund
To ensure businesses do not get penalized with increased unemployment taxes for the massive amount of fraudulent unemployment benefits that were paid out, a deposit will be made to the Unemployment Trust Fund.
$150 million has been appropriated for this purpose.
- Liquor License Relief
For businesses with on-premise liquor licenses a fund will be established to help cover liquor license costs.
$16.5 million has been appropriated for the fund.
- Food Service Establishment License Relief
In order to help cover fees associated with food service licenses that were not able to be utilized during the pandemic, a fund has been created to help businesses cover this expense.
$22 million has been appropriated for the fund.
- License Inspection Relief
For businesses forced to shut down that were still subject to inspection fees, the legislature created a fund to help cover these fees.
$11.5 million has been appropriated for the fund.
- Unemployment Insurance Relief
Qualifying businesses will be eligible for unemployment insurance relief through the creation of a new fund. The maximum amount of relief will be equal to 50% of the amount of unemployment insurance taxes paid in the four most recent quarters and could be used only for working capital to support payroll, rent, mortgage, utilities, and reopening costs.
$55 million has been appropriated.
- Delinquent Property Tax Fee and Penalty Relief
In anticipation of forthcoming legislation, financial relief has been set aside to help taxpayers cover penalty and interest costs for unpaid summer 2020 property taxes.
$22 million will be available for this cause.
It is unknown whether the Governor will sign this much needed business relief. While disagreements can take place, signing this bill is a great step forward while areas yet to be agreed on can be ironed out.
For more information on this supplemental budget bill, please contact Dan Papineau at dpapineau@michamber.com