Tag Archives: michigan

Michigan Senate Votes for New Funding for Transportation!

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There are many transit options in Michigan and a complete transportation funding program would support all of them.

There are many transit options in Michigan and a complete transportation funding program would support all of them.

In a huge vote, the Michigan Senate has just passed HB 5477, a bill that would phase in a new percentage-based gasoline tax that will result in an additional $1.2 billion for transportation funding by 2019. Revenue from other bills in this package result in transportation increases as high as $1.5 billion annually once fully phased in.

The bill would replace the current cents per gallon structure, which is 19 cents per gallon on gasoline and 15 cents per gallon on diesel fuel. Under the bill, the percentage tax on gas would start at 9.5 percent as of April 1, 2015. It would increase to 11.5 percent on January 1, 2016; to 13.5 percent on January 1, 2017; and to 15.5 percent on January 1, 2018.

Thank you to all of our members who reached out to their Senator asking them to support this important legislation. The bill will now need to be approved by the House. Our advocacy efforts cannot end here. We encourage you to immediately begin reaching out to your House member and ask them to vote yes on House Bill 5477 as approved by the Senate.

John LaMacchia is a Legislative Associate for the League handling transportation and infrastructure issues. He can be reached at jlamacchia@mml.org or 517-908-0303.

How can this make sense?

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One good thing about working in local government is just when you think that you have seen it all…surprise!  The latest “you have to be kidding moment” comes courtesy of the federal government.  They are proposing to make municipal bonds taxable as one of the ways to plug the holes in their budget.  The same municipal bonds that help local government to build critical infrastructure.

What’s especially interesting about this idea is it doesn’t just mean that investors pay more in taxes.  It has the added effect of raising the cost of every local infrastructure project in the United States of America!  That’s the same US of A that has identified so many deficiencies in local infrastructure that most consider it to ba a crisis, is now considering a way to make projects less viable and more costly.  Municipal bonds are currently funding over $3.7 trillion worth of essential infrastructure across the country. Ninety (90) percent of this amount went to improve schools, hospitals, water and sewer facilities, public power utilities, roads and public transit.

I recognize that the federal government has budget issues that are almost beyond definition, but this “solution” takes money away from local projects and throws it into the federal abyss.  Every dollar the feds will take in taxes, is one less dollar we have to maintain our communities. Is this really a step forward?

Mark me down as a no.

It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

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Can you feel it?  It’s the time of the year when Jack Frost starts to nip at our nose and we all dream of what could be.  No not the holidays silly.  The lame duck legislative session.  Every lame duck session is packed with action.  Lets be honest, its a time in the legislature when issues that have been debated at length, but languished because they are tough votes tend to move.  It’s part of the process.  What lame duck shouldn’t be used for is ramming through major policy changes that have not had the benefit of debate and our best collective thinking.  Unfortunately, that is exactly what is happening with personal property tax(PPT) reform.

Just to be clear, I am not in favor of the PPT.  It’s a bad tax. It’s tough to administer and can be a disincentive to business investment.  That said, the reality is the PPT provides critical funding to vital local services like police, fire, parks and the like and they are already drastically underfunded. This means any reform must provide guaranteed replacement revenue.  The plan that is on the table attempts to provide replacement revenue but requires a statewide vote, potential local referendums, new levels of government,added bureaucracy, and the possibility of zero replacement revenue if votes fail.   Oh by the way, at this point we only have a plan outline.  We don’t even have bills to read.  So what we have on the table is a plan with more questions than answers.

So my question is what’s the rush?  If we all agree reform is necessary, why hurry such important tax policy changes without making it the best system we can?  We have toiled for years under a cobbled together tax system and that hasn’t exactly been working out so well.  There is too much at stake, and no reason to do this in the next two weeks.  Let’s start a new trend and focus on getting it right, not just getting it done.

Well I’m glad that’s over!

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Well It’s finally over.  As of this morning we do not have to watch an endless stream of political ads that tell me yes means no and which candidate is the only real American.   My Facebook friends will no longer have to share their political wisdom and personal beliefs, and my twitter feed won’t be filled with “he said, she said” tweets.  I welcome back with open arms commercials to grow hair and lose weight.  I am excited to see pictures of my friends dog wearing a tuxedo and tweets about how amazing the new IPad and how it will change my life.  Yep life is back to normal.

Unfortunately we are still left with a polarized political system.  Normal also means far too many of our elected officials are guided by views at the far ends of the spectrum, and somehow compromise has become a four letter word.  The challenges that remain are significant. I implore my friends on both sides of the aisle to work together to make Michigan and the United States the best they can be.  It is in everyone’s best interests to find common ground and develop sound public and fiscal policy that moves us forward.  The alternative is unacceptable.

Get by with a little help from your friends

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I applaud the City of Detroit and the State of Michigan for making everyone a winner with the Belle Isle lease agreement.  The deal for the state to lease Belle Isle relieves the city of the substantial cost of maintaining the park, and opens the door for significant improvements to this tarnished gem making it an even greater asset to the city.  Residents and visitors to Detroit alike should be thrilled with this announcement as everyone stands to benefit.  So what lessons can we all take a way from this historic agreement?

Lesson one:  Put your good sense ahead of your pride.  It sounds easy, but that can be tough to do and takes a fair amount of courage.  This decision was not a slam dunk.  Not because it didn’t make sense, but because many felt that if the city doesn’t directly manage the park, then it must be a loss for the city. It wouldn’t have been a loss of money, improvements or access, those all improve.  None of that made the decision any less difficult.  Fortunately all involved had the vision to see that allowing the state to be a partner with the city improves Belle Isle for everyone.

Lesson two: Do what you do best.  Belle Isle is a major park that requires a huge continuing investment. Even though it is utilized by many folks outside the city, Detroit bore the full financial burden. In short Detroit was not set up to succeed on this one. The State has more resources, manages large parks, and is actually pretty good at it. The city is far better served by focusing their energy and financial wherewithal on other areas of the city’s operation. They can now put added emphasis on neighborhood parks, public safety or other key areas.

Lesson three:  The Stockdale paradox – Confront the brutal truth of the situation, yet at the same time never give up hope.  Like so many municipalities in Michigan, the City of Detroit is faced with some very difficult financial circumstances.  It serves no one’s purposes, especially your residents, to ignore the reality that we all face.  Confront it and utilize all the resources at your disposal to craft a plan that keeps your community moving forward.

My father always told me, “don’t cut off your nose to spite your face”, and it seems appropriate in this circumstance.  To have let this opportunity pass would have served no one.  We should all learn from the leadership shown here to be open to new ideas, even if that idea stings a little at first.  Maybe that idea is in the form of a partnership, or even a hand off.  If in the end our residents are better served, then we have done our job. Kudos all around!

The Big Disconnect

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Once upon a time in a land far, far, away….Oh wait wrong fairly tale.  What am I talking about? The fact that not too long ago the provision ofr services in Michigan used to be a shared responsibility between state government and local government.  But, over the past decade or more what we have seen is a devolving of those responsibilities to primarily locals as the state has used nearly $5 billion meant for locals to fill its own budget hole.  As a result we’ve seen locals layoff police and fire personnel, close parks and libraries, and put off much need upgrades to important infrastructure such as local streets and sewers. At the same time, getting state government (governors and legislators) to come together on the need for additional revenues has been virtually impossible.  Take additional revenues to help fix our roads and bridges and support transit alternatives.  Even with federal dollars at stake, the legislature can’t seem to find a way to agree to something…anything that would bring such areas into the 21st century.

And yet, at the local level, residents are passing millage after millage to support any number of services.  As a matter of fact at the August election, 90% of all local millages were approved.  This included 100% of all public transit millage requests!   The story has been the same the past couple of years. In the August 2010 election, 86% of all millages were approved and in May of 2011 more than 80% were adopted.

So what’s the deal in the halls of Lansing or Washington?   Clearly, local voters are more than willing to support additional revenues for items when the case is made for specific services that add to our quality of life.  Lets just be sure that the next time we hear a state legislator say the public is against raising taxes to remind them of the reality.

Can you afford to cut training from your budget?

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An all too frequent casualty of tightening budgets are the dollars spent on training.  It seems painless.  There is no immediate manifestation of a service cut, or elimination of a position so it on a relative basis it seems like a good cut to make.  But what is the cost of what you don’t know?  What is the impact of not being aware of innovations that would provide more efficient operations and lessen the budget constraints?  I would suggest that these costs far outweigh the cost of the training.

We are all being asked to do more with less, or as I have heard some folks express recently, to do something with nothing.  How does anyone expect to succeed in this environment without providing themselves the opportunity to train and network with their peers? Elected and appointed officials are tasked with running very complex, multifaceted corporations.  In the case of  elected officials, most begin office with a love for their community but little to no training or experience about the role they are accepting.  That is not a formula for efficiency and innovation, it’s a formula for disaster.

Every successful business understands the fundamental need to train their employees,   but we somehow diminish that same value when it comes to our local operations.  Training and networking are not perks , they are a necessary part of any successful business.  Don’t short change your community by taking a short term solution to a long term problem.  You have a duty to take the necessary steps to be certain you are in a position to succeed. A big part of that is sowing the seeds of innovation and efficiency with appropriate educational and networking opportunities.

Imagine if your community never learned about computers, the internet, or email.  Think about the cost it would take to deliver services without the benefit of these innovations.  Are you up to speed on grants? Economic development laws and practices?  Service delivery models?  Laws pertaining to setting rates and charges?

What’s the future cost of what you don’t know about today?  It might shock you!