HISTORY MUSEUM AUTHORITIES ACT                                        S.B. 653 (S-1):

                                                                                         SUMMARY OF BILL

                                                                         REPORTED FROM COMMITTEE

Senate Bill 653 (Substitute S-1 as reported)

Sponsor:  Senator Marshall Bullock

Committee:  Economic and Small Business Development

CONTENT

The bill would enact the History Museum Authorities Act to do the following:

-- Allow any county with a population over 1.0 million to form a history museum authority.

-- Require a majority of the members of the county board of commissioners of the county establishing the authority to prepare and adopt articles of incorporation to initiate the authority's establishment.

-- Prescribe the powers and duties of an authority, which would include providing funding under a contract with one or more history museum services providers to support the provision of history museum services and levying a history museum tax as proposed by the Act, among other things.

-- Allow an authority to levy a tax of up to 0.4 mill for a period of up to 20 years on all the taxable property within the county to provide revenue to one or more history museum services providers.

-- Require, before the authority levied the tax described above, a majority of the electors in the county in which an authority proposed to levy the tax to approve it in an August or November regular election.

-- Require a county or municipality to charge an authority for, and require an authority to provide reimbursement for, actual costs that the county or municipality incurred that were exclusively attributable to an election for the tax if the tax were approved by electors.

-- Require an authority to transfer the funds, less the amount necessary to fund the payment of obligations incurred by it, to the history museum services provider within 10 business days after receiving the funds from the local property tax collecting unit.

-- Require the board of an authority to obtain an annual audit that met certain requirements from the authority.

                                                                Legislative Analyst:  Tyler VanHuyse

FISCAL IMPACT

The bill would have no fiscal impact on the State or any county that did not elect to establish a history museum authority. Only a county with a population of over 1.0 million would be allowed to establish an authority; as of the 2020 census, only Wayne and Oakland Counties would be eligible. The bill's provisions are permissive, so any fiscal impact would depend on whether a county chose to establish an authority, and whether voters in the county voted for the supporting millage. A county would incur some administrative costs if it held a vote for the millage, but if the millage passed, the county would be reimbursed by the authority for that cost. The authority would not be allowed to redirect any existing property tax revenue, so the potential fiscal impact would be limited to the historic museum authority millage.

Date Completed:  12-3-21                                       Fiscal Analyst: Ryan Bergan 

This analysis was prepared by nonpartisan Senate staff for use by the Senate in its deliberations and does not constitute an official statement of legislative intent.