local government

'It's not just Detroit,' hundreds of Michigan cities face huge unfunded liabilities

Steve Carmody — Thu, 14 Mar 2013 15:11:50 +0000

Hundreds of Michigan cities are not saving enough to cover their future retiree health care costs.

A new report says more than 300 Michigan municipalities have in excess of $13 billion in unfunded liabilities for health care costs of retired public employees.

Michigan State University researchers found only half of the municipalities are prefunding retiree health care. The rest are setting aside no money despite longer lifespans and rapidly rising health costs.

While the collective bill of funding those benefits is $12.7 billion, the bulk of it, almost $11 billion, is attributable to local governments in a 10-county region of Southeast Michigan including Oakland, Macomb and Wayne counties. The city of Detroit alone will owe $5 billion in retiree health care costs.

But MSU professor Eric Scorsone says cities like Grand Rapids, Flint, Lansing and Saginaw also face difficult choices.

“That’s already happening today….these cities…are paying millions of dollars in retiree premiums so it’s already having an effect and it will have an even bigger effect in the future,” says Scorsone.

Scorsone says the new national health care law may help some. But tax increases, budget cuts or broken promises to retirees are inevitable, unless the state takes action.

Michigan's local government leaders want the state's personal property tax changed*

Steve Carmody — Mon, 19 Nov 2012 06:58:00 +0000

A new poll shows local government leaders are concerned about proposals to repeal or greatly change Michigan’s personal property tax.

Michigan’s personal property tax focuses on assets like furniture, equipment, computers and other temporary investments.

Businesses have complained for years about the personal property tax. Critics complain the tax is an obstacle to reinvestment and attracting new investment to Michigan

But the tax generates hundreds of millions of dollars for local governments.

Stateside: Government and unions learn how to better communicate

Michigan Radio Newsroom — Thu, 25 Oct 2012 21:27:13 +0000

Believe it or not, many of Michigan’s local leaders are satisfied with union negotiations.

According to Tom Ivacko, administrator and program manager of Ford School’s Center for Local, State and Urban Policy, the relationship between jurisdiction and its employees is quite positive.

Ivacko oversees the Michigan Public Policy Survey program. He spoke today with Cyndy about these relationships.

Michigan awards grants to 32 communities to find new ways to get along

Lindsey Smith — Tue, 23 Oct 2012 21:07:32 +0000

Getting along with your neighbors isn’t always easy. So Governor Rick Snyder came up with a pretty simple plan to get townships, counties and cities to find new ways to work together; give them some kind of incentive, specifically, money.

Michigan Department of Treasury spokesman Terry Stanton says these Competitive Grant Assistance Grants are incentives to get neighboring cities, townships and counties to work together in new ways.

New House bill would limit cost of FOIA requests

Jake Neher — Tue, 25 Sep 2012 21:25:43 +0000

Some of Michigan’s city and township officials are worried about a bill that would limit how much they could charge for public information requests. The state House Oversight, Reform, and Ethics Committee opened hearings Tuesday on measures to make it easier and cheaper to file Freedom of Information Act requests.

Bill Anderson of the Michigan Townships Association said local governments are already losing money processing requests.

Grand Rapids and Livonia team up to find best solutions for managing cities

Lindsey Smith — Tue, 24 Jul 2012 18:40:41 +0000

Two cities from opposite sides of the state are working together to come up with better ways to manage local governments.

Livonia and Grand Rapids are teaming up to find solutions to all kinds of common city management problems; like, what's the best practice for hiring city workers? What about for borrowing money? What’s the best accounting software for the price?

“In essence it could be anything necessary to run local government and best practices that we could easily share,” said Greg Sundstrom, Grand Rapids’ city manager.

Three West Michigan communities consider merging into one

Lindsey Smith — Sun, 08 Apr 2012 20:00:00 +0000

This week there will be an important hearing for those hoping to merge three West Michigan communities. A group of citizens is asking the state to allow the cities of Saugatuck, Douglas and Saugatuck Township to merge into one city.

Kent County’s ‘reverse eBay’ saves thousands on supplies

Lindsey Smith — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 22:00:46 +0000

Kent County is saving tens of thousands of dollars a year on supplies thanks to a customized online auction. The program is like the online auction site eBay in reverse.

When Kent County needs office supplies, like printer paper, it opens an auction online. It lists a maximum price it’s willing to pay based on previous bills. Vendors offer to sell the county printer paper at that price or lower.

More than 70% of eligible Kalamazoo City workers already signed up for early retirement

Lindsey Smith — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 16:17:23 +0000

265 Kalamazoo City employees are eligible for the early retirement incentive. According to the city’s Human Resources Director Jerome Post, 191 of them have already signed up. “I have to admit I’m a little surprised at the number of people,” Post said the number is higher than he expected.

“It’s been a little bit anxiety ridden for us but at the same time we’ve been very excited about the opportunity this presents for us to restructure virtually every department in the city,” Post said.

Talks about Grand Rapids, Kent County merger will go on

Lindsey Smith — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 23:45:15 +0000

Discussions about a proposal to merge the City of Grand Rapids and Kent County into a single unit of government will move forward despite numerous concerns about the final outcome.

Earlier this year a group of business leaders launched the “One Kent Coalition”. They didn’t really inform the city or the county of their plan ahead of time so initially there was a backlash against it. Many government leaders, like Grand Rapids City Commissioner Dave Shaffer, remain cautious.

Local Control and Health Care

Jack Lessenberry — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 15:04:19 +0000

http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/michigan/local-michigan-983433.mp3

As you may know by now, the Michigan Legislature passed a bill yesterday limiting how much local governments and schools can spend to provide health care for their employees.

The new law, which Governor Snyder is expected to sign, says local governments can contribute a maximum of fifty-five hundred dollars an employee, or fifteen thousand dollars a family.

Their only other option is to split health coverage cost with the employees, as long as the workers pay at least twenty percent.

Local governments can opt out of these requirements, but it won’t be easy. They’d have to do so by a two-thirds vote of their council or school board, and take a new vote every year.

Transforming city government in Grand Rapids

Lindsey Smith — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 21:36:49 +0000

Today elected officials in Grand Rapids adopted a budget for 2012. The plan closes a $6 million budget gap in the city’s general fund.

The plan includes money for a new ‘transformation fund’ – which can only be used for one-time investments in long-term structural changes.

Gun Lake Casino’s first payout to state, local governments top expectations

Lindsey Smith — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 20:25:57 +0000

The state and several local governments are getting more than $2.5 million from Gun Lake Casino. It’s the first revenue-sharing payment since the casino opened in February.

More than $500,000 goes to one city, six townships, Allegan County and a public school district near the casino about 30 minutes south of Grand Rapids.

Wayland Township Supervisor Roger VanVolkinburg is not the only one who underestimated how big the first check would be.

Governor Snyder rolls out plan to reform local government

Rick Pluta — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 15:37:49 +0000

Governor Rick Snyder has outlined a plan to withhold some state aid to local governments unless they make plans to consolidate services and make their finances more open. The governor says he wants to create new incentives for communities to save money and become more efficient.

He would revamp how the state shares tax revenues with cities and townships to reward those that come up with cost-savings.

Heartwell: Grand Rapids ‘destination city’

Lindsey Smith — Sat, 05 Feb 2011 20:34:54 +0000

Grand Rapids’ Mayor George Heartwell painted his city as a destination for medical researchers, entrepreneurs, artists and young people in his State of the City address Saturday.