{"id":1451,"date":"2018-04-09T16:53:48","date_gmt":"2018-04-09T16:53:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/weda.org\/?p=1451"},"modified":"2018-04-10T17:58:02","modified_gmt":"2018-04-10T17:58:02","slug":"weda-political-news-and-notes-april-5-2018-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/weda.org\/weda-political-news-and-notes-april-5-2018-3\/","title":{"rendered":"WEDA Political News and Notes – April 5, 2018"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/u><\/p>\n

April 5, 2018<\/p>\n

Gov. Walker signs WEDA-supported bills into law<\/h1>\n

In the closing, frenzied last days of the legislative session, lawmakers sent hundreds of bills to Gov. Scott Walker. Over the last few weeks, the Governor has been busy shrinking the stack of legislation on his desk, signing them into law one by one. Among the bills recently signed by the Governor were a number of proposals supported by WEDA.\u00a0\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Earlier this week, Gov. Walker signed the TIF subtraction bill (AB 659<\/a>) into law, giving communities greater flexibility in the use of tax incremental financing (TIF). The bill was considered priority legislation for WEDA.<\/p>\n

State law allows a municipality to subtract territory from a tax incremental district (TID) prior to the termination of the whole TID. However, prior to the passage of AB 659, if a municipality subtracted a portion of territory from a TID, they were not eligible for a levy-limit adjustment \u2013 not at the time of the subtraction, nor at the time of the termination of the whole TID. It provided no incentive for a community to subtract territory from a TID, even if it was in the best interest of the district or local property taxpayers.<\/p>\n

The new law<\/a> fixes this oversight in state TIF law by permitting municipalities that subtract territory from a TID to increase their levy limit by an amount equal to 50% of the subtracted territory\u2019s value increment. It\u2019s straightforward, common-sense legislation that will incentivize municipalities to use the TID territory subtraction process, potentially resulting in additional local tax revenue, immediate property tax relief, and new economic development opportunities.<\/p>\n

The Governor also recently signed AB 547<\/a>, the wetlands regulatory reform bill. The legislation streamlines the regulation of certain isolated, non-federal wetlands and exempts artificial wetlands from state permitting and mitigation requirements. The new law<\/a> strikes a balance between conservation and economic development by making reasonable improvements to the state\u2019s wetland regulatory process, which has been a costly obstacle to development and business expansion.<\/p>\n

Please find below an overview of other WEDA-supported bills recently signed into law by the Governor:<\/p>\n