The Michigan Senate isn’t the only governmental body working to change local green building legislation. The Michigan House of Representatives also has a number of pending bills.
Continuing with the previous article about the Senate bills, a summary of the House bills presented by Plunkett Cooney Senior Attorney Saulius Mikalonis at the OakGreen Sustainable Community Seminar in June can be found below.
- House Bill No. 4575
- This bill will amend the State Construction Code.
- It will allow a state subdivision to adopt the National Green Building Standard, ICC-700 (International Code Council) or allow a state subdivision to adopt a LEED-based “green” rating system at a specific level.
- House Bill No. 4056
- This bill also changes the State Construction Code.
- If an application for a building plan is submitted is certified as LEED at any level, the plans must be granted or denied within five days.
- The problem with this is that buildings are not certified until after they are constructed and it is demonstrated that the building, as constructed, meets its planned LEED point total.
- House Bill No. 4124
- This bill amends the Michigan Business Tax Act.
- The taxpayer can obtain a 50 percent tax credit up to $50,000 for the cost of building a LEED-certified building, including the costs of certification.
- The taxpayer can also obtain a 20 percent tax credit for the expenses related to install equipment to participate in a net-metering program.
- House Bill No. 5640 – Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE)
- This bill would allow local communities to issue bonds to raise capital for the installation of renewable energy technology within specifically drawn districts.
- The money is then lent to local commercial or residential property owners within the district to finance energy retrofits to their property.
- The property owner then pays back the money over years in the form of an annual assessment on their property tax bill.
- If the property owner sells the property, the obligation “runs with the land” or, in other words, becomes the obligation of the next owner until the debt is fully paid.
View more information on Mikalonis or Plunkett Cooney, visit www.plunkettcooney.com.
Jennifer Griffin, Contributing Writer and Public Relations, GreeningDetroit.com
Jennifer is pursuing a degree in Journalism and English from Wayne State University, and she is also a Contributing Writer for The South End.