This week Senators Lindsay Graham (R-SC) and John Cornyn (R-TX) introduced an amendment that would have significant negative impacts to cities around the country, but was targeted at Detroit. The amendment, which is attached, was offered in the Senate Appropriations committee and would have prohibited federal funding to any local government that was in default OR at risk of default, which was not defined. The League has partnered with the National League of Cities to send a letter to the Senate opposing these efforts. The letter is also attached. This proposal is an inflexible and irrational way of attacking communities which are seeking lawful measures to handle fiscal distress. While the amendment was defeated in the Senate Thursday – it was along party lines, 16-14, so it will most certainly rear it’s head again. The League has been in direct communication with the DC staff of both Senators Levin and Stabenow on this issue, who have both spoken out in opposition to the concept.

Revised Graham – BAILOUT

Letter from MML and NLC to the Senate re Appropriations

Congress has been working its way through the budget process, and as we have seen so far this year, the Senate budget proposals regarding local government issues are much more favorable than the House versions. This coming week, the Senate will resume work on the Transportation Housing and Urban Development bill. There have been many amendments to slash funding for specific programs in this budget, so we have a simple message – to support the Senate budget and oppose all amendments which slash funding from various programs going to local communities. If you have yet to add your voice to this effort you can get contact information for Senators Levin and Stabenow by clicking here.

Summer Minnick is the Director of Policy Initiatives and Federal Affairs. She can be reached at sminnick@mml.org or 517-908-0301.

League CEO Dan Gilmartin has signed on with MSHDA’s CEO Scott Woosley in a letter to Michigan’s Congressional delegation regarding the critical importance of keeping municipal bonds tax exempt as Congress debates federal tax reform. The letter (attached) was distributed from Governor Snyder’s Washington DC Office last week. This is the League’s latest effort to impress upon Congress how essential it is that they keep the tax exempt status in place as Congress consideres overhauling tax policy. Michigan is in a unique position as we have both the Chairman (Rep. Camp – R) and ranking member (Rep. Levin – D) on the House Ways and Means Committee, which is leading the effort in the House. If you have not done so yet, please take the time to contact your Congressional leaders by clicking here. A sample letter is attached in addition to a report on the issue.

MSHDAMML LH

Sample Letter

Muni Bond Report

Summer Minnick is the Director of Policy Initiatives and Federal Affairs. She can be reached at sminnick@mml.org or 517-908-0301.

The legislature remains mostly on summer break (although the Senate Government Operations Committee did meet last week to discuss Medicaid expansion.) Despite it being quiet at the Capitol, League staff continues to actively participate in a number of meetings.

There are workgroups and meetings ongoing on a number of issues including FOIA, issues related to consolidation/collaboration, and of course fixes to the personal property tax legislation that passed in lame duck.

We anticipate the legislature will be back in September, but any public meetings that will be held this summer will continue to focus largely on Medicaid expansion.  We encourage you to meet with your legislators while they are home in the district and urge them to focus on those issues important to communities including increased EVIP funding, increased transportation funding, and the importance of ensuring full replacement as they tweak the PPT plan.

Samantha Harkins is the Director of State Affairs for the Michigan Municipal League.  She can be reached at 517-908-0306 or email at sharkins@mml.org

Congress is moving budget plans through the appropriations process, and the House and Senate are at odds with funding levels for various transportation programs. The House is proposing much less funding, and zeroed out TIGER grant funding and bridge repair grant funding. Please take a moment to contact your congressman to let them know how important this funding is for your community. You can use a sample letter from Transportation 4 America, by clicking here. Or you can just contact your leaders by clicking here.

Summer Minnick is the Director of Policy Initiatives and Federal Affairs. She can be reached at 517-908-0301 or sminnick@mml.org

By Peter Auger

When asked to write a short blog on our relationships with our local higher education partner, my question is which one? Most people don’t realize that Auburn Hills is a college town with five institutions having a footprint here. We have different relationships with each institution, but we are actively engaged with them all.

Having more than 35,000 college students coming to our community every week puts us in a unique situation that we don’t believe we have capitalized on, yet.

But that process of active engagement has begun and I believe is highlighted by one of our projects in our downtown.

During the downturn in the economy some rundown properties were made available to us and we jumped at the opportunity to create more public value.

We knew, as a community, we lacked some housing components for college students. We also found through a survey of students that what they would like is a place to gather that was not a bar.

Another piece of information we found out through our interaction with all of our education partners is that high-tech classroom area is at a premium on all their campuses.

Through the efforts of many people and much cooperation between Oakland University, Oakland Community College, Baker College, Cooley Law School, Avondale School District and even our Chamber of Commerce and the private sector, we have launched a great downtown project that is changing the face of our community and building that sense of place.

Briefly, I will attempt to explain this series of projects that started with a simple conversation.

University Center is an old, two-story structure that is being re-purposed into two downstairs high-tech classrooms (one will fit 50 people the other 30-plus). The upper level will become Avondale High School’s Virtual Learning Center.

The colleges have all worked together for scheduling of the classrooms and to determine how the rooms would be furnished (chairs and tables and with the plug and play technology).

Directly next door is a private housing developer who has worked with Oakland University and Cooley Law School to create 97 graduate student housing apartments, with retail on the first floor. This structure is wrapped around a four-story parking structure that our Tax Increment Finance Authority (TIFA) district built and is attached to the housing complex.

Last, but not least, is a historic log cabin that the city owns which was modernized and furnished as a public gathering place with multiple fireplaces and deck area. This space also offers free wifi and areas for group study.

This is obviously a Readers Digest version of our project, but it all started with a simple conversation between a municipality and higher education officials when we decided to work together. Is it working? Well, you be the judge, we would love to have you visit downtown Auburn Hills.

Peter Auger is the city manager for Auburn Hills.

By Brandy Johnson and Marjorie D. Cohen
Reprinted with persmission from The Review magazine

In order for Michigan cities to sustain vibrant economies and healthy communities, they must implement bold strategies that ensure more of the residents attain college degrees and valuable postsecondary certificates.

A recent study by CEOs for Cities found that 58 percent of a region’s economic health comes from the educational attainment of its residents. Another one from Georgetown University predicts that 62 percent of all Michigan jobs will require postsecondary education by the year 2018.

The benefits of increased levels of education to cities are substantial. Per capita income increases, and subsequently so do tax revenues. Unemployment goes down and so does reliance on public benefits. Crime goes down and volunteerism goes up. The demand for a more highly skilled workforce is growing—and municipal leaders have a unique opportunity to be a part of the supply-side solution.

According to the National League of Cities (NLC), municipal officials are uniquely positioned to form new partnerships with leaders in K-12 and higher education, workforce development, and business to increase postsecondary completion rates.

With support from Lumina Foundation, NLC’s Institute for Youth, Education and Families has developed a new series of publications highlighting city strategies to increase local college completion rates. They have also analyzed the role that mayors are playing to support college access and success in their cities. In the last few years, municipal leaders in dozens of cities have launched new, multi-sector collaborations to dramatically increase the proportion of residents in their communities who obtain postsecondary degrees and credentials. City officials are increasingly focused on postsecondary success as a core component of their economic development strategies.

In Michigan, municipal leaders have the opportunity to leverage new resources for their communities by joining a growing coalition of networks committed to ensure more of their residents pursue and complete education beyond high school.

In 2008, a group of high-level leaders representing K-12, higher education, business, government, nonprofit organizations, and philanthropy, began meeting to discuss the possibility of establishing a statewide network responsible for galvanizing an educational attainment movement in the state.

Michigan College Access Network (MCAN) formally launched in 2010 with support from federal, state, and philanthropic funding and was charged with increasing Michigan’s educational attainment rate to 60 percent by the year 2025. Only about 36 percent of Michigan adults aged 25-64 possess at least an associate degree (to find your county’s rate, visit www.luminafoundation.org/state/Michigan/).

Local College Access Networks
Just three years later, MCAN is now supporting more than 50 communities’ efforts to mobilize leadership and resources around the goal of increasing the educational attainment of their citizens with a focus on aligning systems around college readiness, college participation, and college completion rates. Far too many Michigan students don’t pursue higher education after high school—and many that do, don’t ever complete a degree because they aren’t socially, academically, informationally, or financially prepared. MCAN helps communities build cross-sector strategic alliances, known as Local College Access Networks, or LCANs.

Each LCAN:
• Agrees on a vision;
• Establishes clear college readiness/
participation/completion goals;
• Aligns and coordinates existing organizations to shared goals to fill differentiated roles;
• Implements a collaborative action plan based on data-driven community priorities; and
• Tracks progress on goals transparently and holds partners accountable for results.

Michigan Communities Involved
Communities throughout Michigan are designing and implementing innovative strategies to boost college attainment via their LCANs. In Newaygo County, community leaders have raised enough funds to place full-time college advisers in each of their high schools to provide one-on-one assistance guidance to all graduating seniors. Benton Harbor, Hazel Park, Lansing, Pontiac, and Saginaw have all launched universal place-based scholarships to all students inspired by the Kalamazoo Promise. Muskegon County and St. Clair County are each leading major public awareness campaigns to build a college-going culture.

Bay City and Jackson both opened college access resource centers where students and families can visit to get advice and resources on postsecondary educational opportunities. Escanaba has identified former students who are not enrolled in college but are within 12 credits from an associate degree and supports them to complete the degree. Sturgis recently launched a 10-year strategic plan for the city and has lifted up their LCAN as their primary workforce development strategy. Detroit and Grand Rapids are both participating in a national competition to demonstrate the largest increase in postsecondary completion—the winner will get a $1 million prize to launch a national promotional campaign highlighting local efforts.

Steps Municipal Leaders Can Take
In their recent respective publications, both MCAN and NLC have outlined a set of action steps for municipal leaders who are concerned about low college completion rates and want to identify and advance solutions. As a first step, local officials can convene leaders from across sectors to develop a more coordinated strategy to provide students will supports and services they need to graduate with a postsecondary credential.

Additional action steps mayors/presidents should take include:
• Conducting an inventory or scan of local college access and success efforts across sectors, institutions, and community partners;
• Hosting consultative sessions to listen to the perspectives of various stakeholders;
• Establishing a leadership structure to guide and sustain college access and completion efforts;
• Seeking consensus regarding measurable outcomes and key benchmarks or milestones to assess progress;
• Creating data sharing agreements and protocols in order to assemble a fuller picture of the municipality’s education pipeline;
• Developing and implementing action plans that have the potential to “move the needle” on college completion; and
• Persistently raising awareness and celebrating early victories to build and sustain momentum.

To read more about the NLC Postsecondary Success Action Guides, go here.

For Michigan municipal leaders, MCAN can provide grant funding, hands-on technical assistance, and additional tools to interested funding. For more information, visit www.micollegeaccess.org.

Brandy Johnson is the executive director of the Michigan College Access Network. You may reach her at 517-454-1387 or brandy@micollegeaccess.org. Marjorie D. Cohen is a senior associate at the National League of Cities Institute for Youth, Education and Families. You may reach her at 202-626-3052 or cohen@nlc.org.

Last week the legislature adjourned until September.  There are a few tentative days scheduled in July and August but, as of now, there will be no voting and no attendance taken on those days. The legislature broke without voting on anything regarding future transportation funding.  This will continue to be a hot topic for the fall when they return to full session.

One other issue left hanging for the summer is Medicaid expansion. The House passed Medicaid expansion two weeks ago giving the Senate one week to pass it themselves.  Coming down to the final day of session before the summer recess, the Senate adjourned last Thursday without taking a vote.  Senate Majority Leader Randy Richardville has stated he wants at least half of the Republican caucus to vote for the package.  Governor Snyder cut an overseas business trip short and flew back on Thursday to try and help shore up the votes but no vote was ever taken.  He has publicly expressed his disappointment with a no vote action and is making his rounds across the state to some key republican districts in order to get citizens to engage in persuading their legislator to vote for the expansion.  This will likely be a hot topic going through the summer and into the fall if they can’t get it done this summer.

Nikki Brown is a legislative associate for the League.  She can be reached at nbrown@mml.org or 517-908-0305.