Michigan Proposed STR Legislation Update

[Kate Stoermer]

⚖️ HOUSE BILL 5438 - HB 5447 You may be aware a new slate of short-term rental bills was introduced this Legislative Session by Representative Andrews (D - St. Joseph). I had the privilege of attending the House subcommittee meeting reviewing the package of bills this week; there were about 30 folks representing a number of towns and associations in attendance to testify for or against the bills. The key highlights of this slate of bills includes Additional Excise Tax on STR Creation of a statewide STR registry Standardize safety requirements across the state Protect the ability for local government to zone STR in accordance with their needs This isn't the first attempt at statewide regulation, and its clear the bills as written would be operationally burdensome to put into place for the state (aka, expensive) and the problems they are trying to solve are not, in all, a result of STR in our communities but of bad tax laws already in existence. MiSTRA - the newly formed Michigan Short-Term Rental Association, does not support these bills as currently written and testified against it - we did a good job to be balanced and offered some ideas for improvements that could be much more favorable. As with any legislation and regulation, there will be give and take as we balance all the issues but hopefully we see this slate of bills scrapped or substantially reworked. Most townships are very pro because they currently get no tax dollars from tourism in their cities, but that's a bad tax law problem, not an STR problem that we need to solve by being double or triple taxed. The subcommittee will continue accepting testimony for at least one more session.  In full disclosure, most folks I talk to with far more experience in such matters think this slate of Bills is headed for Lame Duck, but without keeping on top of it could be some sheniganans in lame duck session to try to push it through.   If you have an interest in STR in Michigan, happy to connect and share updates. - Kate