Bill Text: MI SB0704 | 2017-2018 | 99th Legislature | Introduced
Bill Title: Taxation; convention tourism assessments; regional convention and tourism promotion act; revise. Amends title & sec. 2 of 2010 PA 254 (MCL 141.1432) & adds secs. 1a, 6a & 6b.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 1-0)
Status: (Passed) 2018-12-28 - Assigned Pa 465'18 [SB0704 Detail]
Download: Michigan-2017-SB0704-Introduced.html
SENATE BILL No. 704
December 5, 2017, Introduced by Senators SCHMIDT and HORN and referred to the Committee on Commerce.
A bill to amend 2010 PA 254, entitled
"Regional convention and tourism promotion act,"
by amending the title and section 2 (MCL 141.1432) and by adding
sections 1a, 6a, and 6b.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF MICHIGAN ENACT:
TITLE
An act 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 oversight functions and duties of
certain state departments, state agencies, and state employees; and
to prescribe penalties and remedies.
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 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) "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
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.
(k) (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.
(l) (k)
"Room" means a room or
other space provided for
sleeping, including the furnishings and other accessories in the
room.
(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 reimbursement of the assessment imposed by this
act.
(n) (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.
(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 for the room.
(p) "Travel bureau" means the Michigan travel bureau created
under section 2a of the Michigan tourism policy act, 1945 PA 106,
MCL 2.102a.
(q) (o)
"Use tax" means the tax
imposed under the use tax act,
1937 PA 94, MCL 205.91 to 205.111.
Sec. 6a. 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
6b, an approved annual marketing plan shall be instituted by the
bureau. A rejected marketing plan shall not be instituted by the
bureau.
Sec. 6b. (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.
