Bill Text: MI SB0763 | 2011-2012 | 96th Legislature | Engrossed
Bill Title: Counties; boards and commissions; powers of a county department of public works; expand to include acquiring or establishing renewable energy systems. Amends secs. 1, 7, 8, 10, 11, 12 & 14 of 1957 PA 185 (MCL 123.731 et seq.).
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 2-0)
Status: (Engrossed - Dead) 2012-06-07 - Referred To Committee On Energy And Technology [SB0763 Detail]
Download: Michigan-2011-SB0763-Engrossed.html
SB-0763, As Passed Senate, June 6, 2012
SENATE BILL No. 763
October 19, 2011, Introduced by Senators JANSEN and PAPPAGEORGE and referred to the Committee on Energy and Technology.
A bill to amend 1957 PA 185, entitled
"An act to authorize the establishing of a department and board of
public works in counties; to prescribe the powers and duties of any
municipality subject to the provisions of this act; to authorize
the incurring of contract obligations and the issuance and payment
of bonds or notes; to provide for a pledge by a municipality of its
full faith and credit and the levy of taxes without limitation as
to rate or amount to the extent necessary; to validate obligations
issued; and to prescribe a procedure for special assessments and
condemnation,"
by amending sections 1, 7, 8, 10, 11, 12, and 14 (MCL 123.731,
123.737, 123.738, 123.740, 123.741, 123.742, and 123.744), sections
11 and 12 as amended by 2002 PA 407.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF MICHIGAN ENACT:
Sec. 1. As used in this act:
(a) "Members elect" means when applied to the county board of
commissioners, both members elected and appointed.
(b) "Acquire" means acquisition by purchase, construction, or
any other method.
(c) "Water supply system" means all plants, works,
instrumentalities, and properties, used or useful in connection
with obtaining a water supply, the treatment of water, or the
distribution of water, or any portion or any combination thereof.
(d) "Sewage disposal system" means all sanitary sewers, storm
sewers, combined sanitary and storm sewers, plants, works,
instrumentalities, and properties, used or useful in connection
with the collection, treatment, or disposal of sewage including
storm water, sanitary sewage, or industrial wastes, or any portion
or any combination thereof.
(e) "Refuse system" means disposal, including all equipment
and facilities for storing, handling, processing, and disposing of
refuse, including plants, works, instrumentalities, and properties,
used or useful in connection with the salvage or disposal of refuse
and used or useful in the creation, sale, or disposal of by-
products, including rock, sand, clay, gravel, or timber, or any
portion or any combination thereof.
(f) "Refuse" means putrescible and nonputrescible solid
wastes, except body wastes, and includes garbage, rubbish, ashes,
incinerator ash, incinerator residue, street cleanings, and
industrial wastes.
(g) "Lake improvements" means any improvements now or
hereafter
authorized by law to be made to any waters of the this
state by a municipality or any board or body which may be
established by a municipality for that purpose, or any portion or
any combination thereof.
(h) "Erosion control" means installation of structures
designed to control erosion or protect property adjacent to the
great
lakes Great Lakes or property affected by levels of the great
lakes
Great Lakes from erosion.
(i) "Municipality" means a county, city, village, township,
charter township, district, or authority existing under the laws of
this state.
(j) "Resolution" means a resolution or an ordinance, if the
governing body of a municipality chooses to act by ordinance rather
than by resolution.
(k) "Governing body" means, in the case of a county, the
county board of commissioners; in the case of a city, the council,
common council, commission, or other body having legislative
powers; in the case of a village, the council, common council,
commission, board of trustees, or other body having legislative
powers; in the case of a township, the township board; in the case
of a charter township, the township board; in the case of a
drainage district, the drain commissioner or the drainage board;
and in the case of another district or of an authority, the body in
which is lodged general governing powers.
(l) "Renewable energy system" means that term as defined in
section 11 of the clean, renewable, and efficient energy act, 2008
PA 295, MCL 460.1011.
Sec. 7. A county establishing a department of public works
shall have the following powers to be administered by the board of
public works subject to any limitations thereon:
(a) To acquire a water supply system within 1 or more areas in
the county and to improve, enlarge, extend, operate, and maintain
the system.
(b) To acquire a sewage disposal system within 1 or more areas
in the county and to improve, enlarge, extend, operate, and
maintain the system.
(c) To acquire a refuse system within 1 or more areas in the
county and to improve, enlarge, extend, operate, and maintain the
system.
(d) To make lake improvements within 1 or more areas in the
county and to improve, enlarge, extend, operate, and maintain the
improvements.
(e) To acquire an erosion control system within 1 or more
areas in the county and to improve, enlarge, extend, operate, and
maintain
the improvements.system.
(f) To acquire a renewable energy system within 1 or more
areas in the county and to improve, enlarge, extend, operate, and
maintain the system.
Sec. 8. A county operating under this act may acquire outside
its
corporate limits any part of a water supply system which that
is
necessary for the purpose of securing a source of supply and may
acquire outside its corporate limits any part of a sewage disposal
system
or refuse system which that
is necessary for the purpose of
disposing, including treatment or incineration, of its sewage or
refuse. A county operating under this act may also acquire any part
of a water supply system, a sewage disposal system, a renewable
energy system, a refuse system or make lake improvements, or
acquire erosion control systems in an adjoining county or counties
upon the consent expressed by contract with or resolution of the
governing
body of the municipality or municipalities in such that
adjoining
county or counties in which such that part of the system
or lake improvements is to be located or which is to be served by
such
that part of the system. The exercise by any county of such
those
powers outside its corporate limits shall
be are subject to
all constitutional provisions relating thereto.
Sec. 10. The establishment of a county water supply system,
sewage disposal system, renewable energy system, or refuse system,
or the making of county lake improvements or erosion control
systems, shall be approved by a majority of the members elect of
the
county board of commissioners. Prior to Before approval of lake
improvements, the county board of commissioners shall submit to the
department
of natural resources preliminary plans which that
provide for making the lake improvements for the department of
natural resources' review and approval. Before approval of erosion
control systems, the county board of commissioners shall submit to
the department of natural resources preliminary plans for the
department's review and approval. Before construction of erosion
control systems, final plans and specifications shall be approved
by the department. After the county board of commissioners'
approval, the board of public works shall have power to acquire the
system or make improvements and to improve, enlarge, extend,
operate, and maintain the same, subject to any restrictions placed
thereon by the county board of commissioners in the resolution
establishing the same or by this act. Any 2 or more systems
established by a county and the areas served thereby may be merged
or combined by resolution adopted by a majority of the members
elect of its county board of commissioners after which the merged
or combined systems may be improved, enlarged, extended, operated,
and maintained under this act as a single system serving the total
areas of the systems but a merger or combination shall not affect
either the rights and obligations acquired by a municipality by any
contract with respect to an established system or the security of
any bonds or the prompt payment of principal or interest thereon. A
resolution adopted by the governing body of any city, village,
township, or charter township authorizing and approving a contract
with a county acting through its board of public works with respect
to the financing or location of or service from any sewage disposal
or refuse system constitutes, notwithstanding any statutory or
charter limitation to the contrary, a permit to acquire, improve,
enlarge, extend, operate, and maintain the sewage disposal or
refuse system within the corporate limits of the city, village,
township, or charter township, but no treatment or disposal plants,
incinerators, works, grounds, filter beds, or other similar sewage
or refuse disposal facilities, sanitary landfills, or dumps shall
actually be located in any municipality without a resolution and
contract.
Sec. 11. (1) The acquirement of a water supply system, sewage
disposal system, renewable energy system, or refuse system, or the
making of lake improvements or erosion control systems, or the
improvement, enlargement, or extension of any of these may be
financed by 1 or more of the following methods:
(a) By the issuance of revenue bonds under the revenue bond
act of 1933, 1933 PA 94, MCL 141.101 to 141.140, or any other
applicable act.
(b) By the issuance of bonds in anticipation of payments to
become due under contracts where 1 or more municipalities agree to
pay to the county operating under this act certain sums toward the
cost of the acquisition, improvement, enlargement, or extension of
a project that may be made under this act.
(c) By the issuance of bonds in anticipation of the payment of
special assessments made by the board of public works.
(d) By money advanced by a county operating under this act
under agreements with a municipality or municipalities for the
repayment of the money.
(e) By money advanced, from time to time, before or during
construction of a project by a public corporation, in which event
the county operating under this act shall reimburse the
corporation, with interest not to exceed 8% per annum or without
interest as may be agreed, when funds are available for that
purpose. The obligation of the county to make the reimbursement may
be evidenced by a contract or note, the contract or note may be
made payable out of the payments to be made by municipalities,
under contracts as described in section 12 or 15, or out of the
proceeds of bonds issued under this act by the county or out of any
other available funds. The contract or note is not subject to the
revised municipal finance act, 2001 PA 34, MCL 141.2101 to
141.2821.
(2) Bonds issued under this act shall be authorized by an
ordinance or a resolution approved by the board of public works and
adopted by the county board of commissioners of the county
operating under this act. The county board of commissioners is
authorized by a 3/5 vote of its members elect, to pledge the full
faith and credit of the county for the prompt payment of the
principal of and interest on any bonds issued pursuant to this act.
The county's full faith and credit may be pledged to the payment of
principal and interest on revenue bonds issued under subsection
(1)(a). If it becomes necessary for the county operating under this
act to advance any money, other than its share of the cost of the
project, for the payment of principal and interest, then it shall
be entitled to reimbursement from any surplus from time to time
existing in the fund from which the principal and interest are
primarily payable. If the faith and credit of the county is pledged
for the payment of principal of and interest on any bonds issued
under this act, the county may, in the case of insufficiency of
funds primarily pledged for the payment, pay the funds from its
general fund or levy taxes without limitation as to rate or amount
in addition to any other taxes that the county is authorized to
levy but not in excess of the rate or amount necessary to make up
the deficiency. The bonds shall be issued in the name of the county
and shall be executed by the chairperson of the county board of
commissioners and its county clerk, who shall also cause their
facsimile signatures to be affixed to the interest coupons to be
attached to the bonds. The county clerk shall also affix to the
bonds the seal of the county. Bonds issued under this act are
negotiable instruments and shall be serial bonds payable annually,
with the first maturity due not more than 5 years and the last
maturity not more than 40 years from the date of issue. This
subsection shall apply to special assessment bonds as well as other
bonds. Annual maturity payable after 5 years from the date of the
bonds shall not be less than 1/4 of the amount of any subsequent
maturity on the same series of bonds. The bonds shall bear interest
at not more than the maximum rate permitted by the revised
municipal finance act, 2001 PA 34, MCL 141.2101 to 141.2821,
payable semiannually except that the first coupon may be for any
number of months not exceeding 10. The bonds and coupons shall be
made payable in lawful money of the United States of America and
shall be exempt from all taxation by this state or by any taxing
authority within this state. The county board of commissioners may
authorize the board of public works to sell the bonds in accordance
with the laws of this state.
Sec. 12. (1) A county operating under this act and any 1 or
more municipalities including the county itself may enter into a
contract or contracts for the acquisition, improvement,
enlargement, or extension of a water supply system, a sewage
disposal system, a renewable energy system, or a refuse system, or
the making of lake improvements or erosion control systems and for
the payment of the costs by the contracting municipalities, with
interest, over a period not exceeding 40 years.
(2) In the contract, each contracting municipality may pledge
its full faith and credit for the payment of its obligations under
the contract. If the municipality has taxing power, it may each
year levy a tax in an amount that will be sufficient for the prompt
payment of all or part of the contract obligations due before the
following year's tax collection. If the contract or an unlimited
tax pledge in support of the contract has been approved by the
electors, the tax may be in addition to any tax that the
municipality may otherwise be authorized to levy and may be imposed
without limitation as to rate or amount but shall not be in excess
of the rate or amount necessary to pay the contract obligation. The
contract is not subject to the revised municipal finance act, 2001
PA 34, MCL 141.2101 to 141.2821. For the payment of contractual
obligations incurred under this act, a township shall levy a tax
only on the taxable property in the unincorporated areas of the
township unless the township and a village have agreed that a part
of the capacity in the county system allocated to the township by
contract pursuant to this act will be used to serve areas in a
village located wholly or partly within the township and the
village has not itself agreed to purchase the capacity in the
county system. If a contracting municipality at the time of its
annual tax levy has on hand in cash any amount pledged to the
payment of the current obligations for which the tax levy is to be
made, then the annual tax levy may be reduced by that amount. For
the purpose of obtaining the credit, funds may be raised by a
municipality by using 1 or more of the following methods:
(a) By service charges to users of the system or lake
improvements.
(b) By special assessment upon lands benefited.
(c) By the exaction of charges for the connection of
properties, directly or indirectly, to the system or for the
availability of the system to serve properties, directly or
indirectly, or at a present or future time.
(d) By setting aside any state collected funds disbursed to
the municipality and usable therefor.
(e) By setting aside any other available money.
(3) For the purpose of obtaining the credit, municipalities
contracting for the acquisition, improvement, enlargement, or
extension of an erosion control system shall levy special
assessments upon all lands benefited to cover not less than 3/4 of
the total project cost contracted for by the local unit. A
municipality may agree to raise all or any part of its contract
obligation by any of the methods provided in this section that are
available. The powers in this act granted to any municipality shall
be exercised by its governing body. A contract entered into before
May 12, 1959, which complies with this act, is validated.
Sec. 14. A county operating under this act, by action of its
board of public works, may acquire property for a water supply
system, an erosion control system, a renewable energy system, a
sewage disposal system, or a refuse system or for lake improvements
by purchase, construction, lease, gift, devise, or condemnation,
either within or without its corporate limits and may hold, manage,
control, sell, exchange, or lease the property. Real estate shall
not be disposed of without the approval of the county board of
commissioners. For the purpose of condemnation, it may proceed as
provided in chapter 3. If the property acquired by a county is
already being used for water supply, sewage or refuse disposal or
lake
improvement purposes, such that
use may be continued by the
county without a resolution of or contract with the municipality in
which the property is located.