COVID -19: Community Cost Survey

(Click here to fill out the survey)

As our communities take steps to address issues that have rose due to the coronavirus there are likely unexpected costs and budget impacts. Though our advocacy work at the State and Federal level the Michigan Municipal League has been diligent in our efforts to discuss the importance of helping communities offset these unexpected costs and mitigate any impacts to their budgets. More accurately understanding those costs in individual communities will be extremely helpful to our advocacy on this issue.

The National League of Cities and United States Conference of Mayors have worked together to develop a short, easy-to-complete survey to all municipalities to demonstrate the direct fiscal impact of the pandemic on municipal governments of all sizes. This information will be used to make the case in Congress for direct funding to all municipalities, regardless of population size.

The information will also be useful here at home as we make our case on the state level. Responses are needed by the end of the day Friday, April 3, and it is imperative that we have as much participation as possible in order to make the best possible case. Please note: individual responses to the survey will not be released and only one response per city can be included. You can access the survey by clicking here.

We would like all our Michigan communities to participate.

NOTE TO OUR VILLAGE and TOWNSHIP MEMBERS: In the “City” box of the survey, select “Other/Not listed.” Then enter the name of your community and state abbreviation in the comments box.

Here are the questions asked in the survey – each question gives you a variety of answers to select from:

  1. Does your city expect a revenue shortfall between March 1, 2020 and Dec. 31, 2020?
  2. What amount of shortfall do you expect?
  3. What percent of annual budget does this shortfall represent?
  4. What is the primary factor driving your shortfall?
  5. Which city government function do you anticipate being significantly affect by the revenue shortfall?
  6. What actions do you anticipate your city will have to take to make up this revenue shortfall?

Please fill out this survey as it will provide tremendous help to the League, NLC and UCM in fighting on behalf of our communities.

John LaMacchia is the Assistant Director of State and Federal Affairs for the League handling transportation, infrastructure, energy and environment issues. He can be reached at jlamacchia@mml.org or 517-908-0303.