ANN ARBOR—Nearly two-thirds of Michigan’s local leaders believe that the state’s system of funding local government is broken and in dire need of reform.

This belief is shared by a majority of local leaders from jurisdictions large and small, from every region of the state, and from both Republicans and Democrats, according to the Michigan Public Policy Survey.

“Though the economy has improved significantly since we launched our first survey near the end of the Great Recession, recovery among Michigan’s local governments has not kept pace,” said Tom Ivacko, program administrator at the Center for Local, State and Urban Policy at the University of Michigan’s Ford School of Public Policy.

“Because of that continued economic growth for the state, we were surprised to find more local leaders today think the system of funding is broken than thought so previously.”

Decreasing state revenue sharing, decreasing property tax revenues, and increasing costs of goods and services likely play a role, said Ivacko. In addition, many local jurisdictions have deferred infrastructure maintenance on roads and water systems.

Of the 11 reforms presented in the survey, a majority of local officials expressed support for three:

• 82 percent support compelling the state to pay for “unfunded mandates” imposed on local governments.
• 76 percent support restoring full statutory revenue sharing.
• 57 percent support reforming the Headlee Amendment.

Local leaders were most supportive of reforms that would impact the state budget, they were not opposed to raising new local revenues if they had discretion to do so.

CLOSUP and the Citizen’s Research Council of Michigan presented these findings during a webinar Tuesday. More information is available at myumi.ch/JDQng

The study, conducted April 4-June 6, 2016, involved surveys sent via hardcopy and the internet to top elected and appointed officials in all counties, cities, villages and townships in Michigan. The survey had a margin of error of 1.3 percentage points.

More information:

• Survey: Local officials say Michigan’s system of funding local government is broken, and seek State action to fix it