Bill Text: MI SB0707 | 2017-2018 | 99th Legislature | Engrossed
Bill Title: Taxation; convention tourism assessments; community convention or tourism marketing act; revise. Amends title & sec. 2 of 1980 PA 395 (MCL 141.872) & adds secs. 1a, 7a & 7b.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 1-0)
Status: (Passed) 2018-12-31 - Assigned Pa 626'18 12/31/18 Addenda [SB0707 Detail]
Download: Michigan-2017-SB0707-Engrossed.html
SB-0707, As Passed Senate, September 26, 2018
SENATE BILL No. 707
December 5, 2017, Introduced by Senators SCHMIDT and HORN and referred to the Committee on Commerce.
A bill to amend 1980 PA 395, entitled
"Community convention or tourism marketing act,"
by amending the title and section 2 (MCL 141.872), the title as
amended by 1984 PA 59 and section 2 as amended by 2010 PA 82, and
by adding sections 1a, 7a, and 7b.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF MICHIGAN ENACT:
TITLE
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 oversight
functions
and duties of the department of commerce; certain state
departments, state agencies, and state employees; and to prescribe
remedies and penalties.
Sec. 1a. (1) The legislature finds all of the following:
(a) Tourism is a major source of employment, income, and tax
revenues in this state, and the expansion of the tourism industry
is vital to the growth of the state's economy.
(b) The tourism industry is important to this state, not only
because of the number of people it serves and the vast human,
financial, and physical resources it employs, but because of the
benefits tourism and related activities confer on individuals and
on society as a whole.
(c) State oversight and resources are needed to implement a
coordinated and effective marketing program consistent with the
master plan developed by this state to promote travel to, and
within, this state under the Michigan tourism policy act, 1945 PA
106, MCL 2.101 to 2.103a, and to optimize the considerable
investment of time, energy, capital, and resources being made by
the tourism industry.
(d) This state can best undertake effective tourism marketing
through the coordinated efforts of existing state government
agencies in tourism promotion and private convention and tourism
promotional bureaus who are better able than state agencies to
market and promote their unique assessment districts, which will
maximize the economic and employment benefits of the tourism
industry to this state and its citizens.
(e) The coordinated efforts within this act to market and
promote tourism represent a broader regulator scheme that does not
impinge on an individual's First Amendment rights.
(2) Nothing in this act shall be construed to do 1 or more of
the following:
(a) Restrain an owner or participant from communicating its
own message or marketing plan.
(b) Require any owner or participant to adopt any actual or
symbolic speech.
(c) Endorse or finance any political speech or ideological
view.
Sec. 2. As used in this act:
(a) "Assessment" means the amount levied against an owner of a
transient facility within an assessment district, computed by
application of the applicable percentage against aggregate room
charges with respect to that transient facility during the
applicable assessment period.
(b) "Assessment district" means a municipality or combination
of municipalities as described in a marketing program. A
combination of municipalities is not required to be contiguous.
(c) "Assessment revenues" means the money derived from the
assessment, including any interest and penalties on the assessment,
imposed by this act.
(d) "Board" means the board of directors elected by the
members of a bureau. A majority of the members of a board shall be
owners of transient facilities.
(e) "Bureau" means a nonprofit corporation existing to promote
convention business or tourism within this state or a portion of
this state.
(f) "Director" means the president of the Michigan strategic
fund or his or her designee.
(g) "Marketing program" means a program established by a
bureau to develop, encourage, solicit, and promote convention
business or tourism within this state or a portion of this state
within which the bureau operates. The encouragement and promotion
of convention business or tourism includes any service, function,
or activity, whether or not performed, sponsored, or advertised by
a bureau, that intends to attract transient guests to the
assessment district. For a bureau described in section 3(8), a
marketing program includes a contract with a nonprofit organization
formed to promote convention business or tourism that receives
funding from a tax levied under 1974 PA 263, MCL 141.861 to
141.867, in a contiguous county to provide for the promotion of
convention business or tourism.
(h) "Marketing program notice" means the notice described in
section 3.
(i) "Master plan" means the comprehensive, long-range master
plan developed by the Michigan travel commission and the travel
bureau under section 2c of the Michigan tourism policy act, 1945 PA
106, MCL 2.102c.
(j) (i)
"Municipality" means a
county with a population of
less than 650,000 or a city, village, or township within a county
with a population of less than 650,000.
(k) (j)
"Owner" means the owner
of a transient facility to be
served by the bureau or, if the transient facility is operated or
managed by a person other than the owner, then the operator or
manager of that transient facility.
(l) (k)
"Room" means a room or
other space provided for
sleeping that can be rented independently, including the
furnishings and other accessories in the room. Room includes, but
is not limited to, a condominium or time-sharing unit that,
pursuant to a management agreement, may be used to provide
dwelling, lodging, or sleeping quarters for a transient guest.
(m) (l) "Room
charge" means the charge imposed for the use or
occupancy of a room, excluding charges for food, beverages, state
use tax, telephone service, or like services paid in connection
with the charge, and excluding reimbursement of the assessment
imposed by this act.
(n) (m)
"Transient facility"
means a building or combination
of buildings under common ownership, operation, or management that
contains 10 or more rooms used in the business of providing
dwelling, lodging, or sleeping to transient guests, whether or not
membership is required for the use of the rooms. Transient facility
does not include a college or school dormitory, a hospital, a
nursing home, or a facility owned and operated by an organization
qualified for an exemption from federal taxation under section
501(c) of the internal revenue code.
(o) (n)
"Transient guest" means a
natural person who occupies
a room in a transient facility for less than 30 consecutive days
regardless of who pays the room charge.
(p) "Travel bureau" means the Michigan travel bureau created
under section 2a of the Michigan tourism policy act, 1945 PA 106,
MCL 2.102a.
Sec. 7a. The board at regular intervals, but not less than
twice per year, shall convene a formal meeting at which the board
shall review its current annual marketing plan and its proposed
annual marketing plan for the succeeding 1-year period. Once a year
at these formal meetings, the board shall review and either approve
or reject the proposed annual marketing plan. Subject to section
7b, an approved annual marketing plan shall be instituted by the
bureau. A rejected marketing plan shall not be instituted by the
bureau.
Sec. 7b. (1) The vice-president of the travel bureau and the
president or chief administrative officer of the bureau shall meet
periodically, but at least once each year, to discuss the master
plan and the annual marketing plan approved by the board.
(2) The bureau and the travel bureau shall coordinate their
marketing program activities and annual marketing plan activities
with the master plan with a goal of maximizing the impact of
tourism and convention business on the economy of this state.
(3) The director shall disapprove of the bureau's annual
marketing plan within 30 days of the meeting provided for in
subsection (1) upon finding that it is detrimental to the master
plan or the travel bureau's promotional programs. The bureau shall
not implement an annual marketing plan that is disapproved by the
travel bureau. If the director does not disapprove of an annual
marketing plan within the 30-day period, the annual marketing plan
shall be considered approved and may be implemented by the bureau.
