To allow the downtown development authority of the City of Houghton to extend the duration of debt it incurred to pay for certain past spending, thereby reducing its current payments at the expense of imposing greater overall interest costs on city taxpayers over time. Essentially, the bill exempts the city from a 2001 law that only allowed such debt extensions when they leave taxpayers in a better position, not a worse one. Houghton's DDA says it needs the exception because lower tax "captures" due to declining property values and tax collections make it unable to make its current loan payments.