Bill Text: MI SB1419 | 2009-2010 | 95th Legislature | Introduced
Bill Title: Economic development; other; regional convention and tourism promotion act; create. Creates new act.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 1-0)
Status: (Engrossed - Dead) 2010-12-01 - Referred To Second Reading [SB1419 Detail]
Download: Michigan-2009-SB1419-Introduced.html
SENATE BILL No. 1419
July 21, 2010, Introduced by Senator STAMAS and referred to the Committee on Commerce and Tourism.
A bill relating to the promotion of convention business and
tourism in this state; to provide for regional tourism and
convention marketing and promotion programs in certain areas; to
provide for imposition and collection of assessments on the owners
of transient facilities to support tourism and convention marketing
and promotion programs; to provide for the disbursement of the
assessments; to establish the functions and duties of certain state
departments and employees; and to prescribe penalties and remedies.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF MICHIGAN ENACT:
Sec. 1. This act shall be known and may be cited as the
"regional convention and tourism promotion act".
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 combination of 2 or more
adjoining municipalities as described in a marketing program.
(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 of a bureau.
(e) "Bureau" means a nonprofit corporation incorporated under
the laws of this state existing solely to promote convention
business and tourism within this state or a portion of this state
and that complies with all of the following:
(i) Has been actively engaged in promoting convention business
and tourism for not less than 5 years.
(ii) Has a board of directors elected by its members.
(iii) Has a full-time chief executive officer and not fewer than
2 full-time equivalent employees.
(iv) Is a member of 1 or more nationally recognized
associations of travel and convention bureaus.
(f) "Director" means the chief executive officer of the
Michigan economic development corporation or his or her designee.
(g) "Marketing program" means a program established by a
bureau to develop, encourage, solicit, and promote regional
convention business and tourism within this state or a portion of
this state within which the bureau operates. The encouragement and
promotion of regional convention business and tourism shall include
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.
(h) "Marketing program notice" means the notice described in
section 3.
(i) "Municipality" means a county with a population of more
than 80,000 and less than 115,000 and that contains a city with a
population of more than 35,000 and less than 45,000, at the time
the marketing notice is filed with the director, and that shares a
border with a county that levies a tax on accommodations under 1974
PA 263, MCL 141.861 to 141.867.
(j) "Owner" means the owner of a transient facility located
within the assessment district 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.
(k) "Room" means a room or other space provided for sleeping,
including the furnishings and other accessories in the room.
(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 reimbursement of the assessment imposed by this
act.
(m) "Transient facility" means a building that contains 2 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. A transient facility shall not include a
hospital or nursing home.
(n) "Transient guest" means a person who occupies a room in a
transient facility for less than 30 consecutive days regardless of
who pays the room charge for the room.
(o) "Use tax" means the tax imposed under the use tax act,
1937 PA 94, MCL 205.91 to 205.111.
Sec. 3. (1) A bureau that has its principal place of business
in an assessment district may file a marketing program notice with
the director. The 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 program.
(2) The marketing program notice shall describe the structure,
history, membership, and activities of the bureau in sufficient
detail to enable the director to determine whether the bureau
satisfies all of the requirements of section 2(e).
(3) The marketing program notice shall describe the marketing
program to be implemented by the bureau with the assessment
revenues and specify the amount of the assessment proposed to be
levied, which shall not exceed 5% of the room charges in the
applicable payment period, and the municipality or municipalities
composing the assessment district.
(4) Simultaneously with the filing of the marketing program
notice with the director, the bureau shall cause a copy of the
notice to be mailed 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 are reasonably
available to the bureau.
(5) The form of the marketing program notice, in addition to
the information required by subsections (1), (2), and (3), shall
set forth the right of referendum prescribed in subsection (6).
(6) Except as otherwise provided in subsection (8), the
assessment set forth in the notice shall become effective on the
first day of the month following the expiration of 40 days after
the date the notice is mailed, unless the director, within the 40-
day period, receives written requests for a referendum by owners of
transient facilities located within the assessment district
representing not less than 40% of the total number of owners or not
less than 40% of the total number of rooms in all of the transient
facilities.
(7) If the director receives referendum requests in the time
and number set forth in subsection (6), the director shall cause a
written referendum to be held by mail or in person, as the director
chooses, among all owners of transient facilities in the assessment
district within 20 days after the expiration of the 40-day period.
For the purposes of the referendum, each owner of a transient
facility shall have 1 vote for each room in each of the owner's
transient facilities within the assessment district. If a majority
of votes actually cast at the referendum approve the assessment, as
proposed by the bureau in its marketing program notice, the
assessment shall become effective, except as otherwise provided in
subsection (8), as to all owners of transient facilities located in
the assessment district on the first day of the month following
expiration of 30 days after certification of the results of the
referendum by the director. If a majority of votes actually cast at
the referendum are opposed to the assessment, the assessment shall
not become effective. If the assessment is defeated by the
referendum, the bureau may file and serve a new notice of intention
if at least 60 days have elapsed from the date of certification of
the results of the earlier referendum. Not more than 2 referenda or
notices may be held pursuant to this subsection or filed pursuant
to this section in any 1 calendar year. Only 1 assessment under
this act may be in existence in an assessment district, or any part
of an assessment district, at any 1 time.
(8) The assessment described in this act shall not be
effective before January 1, 2010.
Sec. 4. A marketing program may include all or any of the
following:
(a) Provisions for establishing and paying the costs of
advertising, marketing, and promotional programs to encourage
convention business and tourism in the assessment district.
(b) Provisions for assisting transient facilities within the
assessment district in promoting regional convention business and
tourism.
(c) Provisions for the acquisition of personal property
considered appropriate by the bureau in furtherance of the purposes
of the marketing program.
(d) Provisions for the hiring of and payment for personnel
employed by the bureau to implement the marketing program.
(e) Provisions for contracting with organizations, agencies,
or persons for carrying out activities in furtherance of the
purposes of the marketing program.
(f) Programs for establishing and paying the costs of research
designed to encourage convention business and tourism in the
assessment district.
Sec. 5. (1) Upon the effective date of an assessment, each
owner of a transient facility in the assessment district shall be
liable for payment of the assessment, computed using the percentage
set forth in the marketing program notice. The assessment shall be
paid by the owner of each such transient facility to the bureau
within 30 days after the end of each calendar month and shall be
accompanied by a statement of room charges imposed with respect to
the transient facility for that month. This act shall not prohibit
a transient facility from reimbursing itself by adding the
assessment imposed pursuant to this act to room charges payable by
transient guests, provided that the transient facility discloses
that it has done so on any bill presented to a transient guest.
(2) Within 30 days after the close of each calendar quarter,
each owner within an assessment district shall forward to the
independent certified public accountants who audit the financial
statements of the bureau copies of its use tax returns for the
preceding quarter. These copies of the use tax returns shall be
used solely by the certified public accountants to verify and audit
the owner's payment of the assessments and shall not be disclosed
to the bureau except as necessary to enforce this act.
(3) Interest shall be paid by an owner to the bureau on any
assessments not paid within the time called for under this act. The
interest shall accrue at the rate of 1.5% per month. Owners
delinquent for more than 90 days in paying assessments, in addition
to the 1.5% interest, shall pay a delinquency charge of 10% per
month or fraction of a month on the amount of the delinquent
assessments and shall pay the costs of reasonable attorney fees and
court costs incurred in colleting delinquent assessments. The
bureau may sue in its own name to collect the assessments,
interest, and delinquency charges.
(4) The owner of a transient facility shall not be liable for
payment of an assessment until a notice has been mailed to the
transient facility of the owner pursuant to section 3(4).
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 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 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.
Sec. 7. (1) At any time 3 years or more after the effective
date of an assessment, and upon the written request of owners of
transient facilities located within the assessment district
representing not less than 40% of the total number of owners or not
less than 40% of the total number of rooms in all the transient
facilities, the bureau shall conduct a referendum on whether the
assessment shall be discontinued. The bureau shall cause a written
referendum to be held by mail or in person, as the bureau chooses,
among all owners of transient facilities in the assessment district
within 60 days of the receipt of the requests. For the purposes of
the referendum, each owner shall have 1 vote for each room in each
of the owner's transient facilities within the assessment district.
If a majority of the total votes eligible to be cast at the
referendum supports discontinuance of the assessment, the
assessment shall be discontinued on the first day of the month
following expiration of 90 days after the certification of the
results of the referendum by the bureau.
(2) Passage of a resolution discontinuing the assessment shall
not prevent a bureau from proposing a new marketing program notice
during or after the 90-day period, in which case the procedures set
forth in section 3 shall be followed.
(3) If a referendum is conducted under subsection (1) and if a
resolution to discontinue the assessment is not adopted, a further
referendum on the discontinuation of that assessment shall not be
held for a period of 2 years.
