House Bill 5719 Summary

• Establishes an incentive program beginning in fiscal year 2016-2017 for cities, villages, townships, and counties to receive additional revenue sharing payments of up to 20% of their prior year payment amount.

• Creates four qualification categories with bonus rates: Category 1 (consolidation of services, 8.0%), Category 2 (workforce reduction of 5.0% or 3+ employees, 4.0%), Category 3 (budget reduction of 5.0%, 4.0%), and Category 4 (maintained balanced budget for 2 consecutive years, 4.0%).

• Requires applicants to submit certification documents to the Department of Treasury, including a cooperation and consolidation plan that must be made publicly available, with no Department review required for payment eligibility.

• Distributes payments on the last business day of October, December, February, April, June, and August; localities forfeit monthly payments if required documentation is not submitted by the first day of the payment month.

• Allows localities that initially qualify to continue receiving increased payments in subsequent fiscal years without additional verification; falsifying documents results in forfeiture of future payments and repayment of all prior received incentive payments.