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8/19/2011

Change is Certain

by Mike Hughes

With the election of a new Governor and Republican controlled State House and Senate, we are witnessing the most active period of legislative change in decades. Along with this comes continued uncertainty and almost daily changes that impact local government, and by extension the citizens, in a variety of ways.

The most significant may be the Governor's Economic Vitality Incentive Program (EVIP). This new legislation made significant changes to local government revenue by repurposing a fairly stable (if declining) revenue sharing system into a new incentive based program.

Under EVIP, State shared revenue was reduced by one third from last year and the remaining amount can be earned by local communities if they meet three main criteria:
1) Communities must develop a citizen's guide and dashboard report,
2) Communities must produce a plan to increase existing levels of cooperation, collaboration and consolidation, and
3) Communities must certify their intention to implement certain employee compensation criteria.

While the City is not opposed to the goals presented by these criteria or the idea of accountability, the program does impact planning by making an already shrinking revenue source unstable. In addition, this program creates additional bureaucracy in times when we are already attempting to do more with less.

Other major areas of reform related to local government include changes to the municipal consolidation and service sharing acts such as the Urban Cooperation Act as well as collective bargaining laws like PA 312. These changes are intended to provide the City and other local governments with the tools necessary to continue to make changes that increase the efficiency and cost-effectiveness of your local government.

For those interested in learning more about all the changes impacting local government in the state, the Michigan Municipal League's website is a great resource for learning about all the new legislation and how it affects local government.

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