For years, officials charged with managing local government services and finances have pointed to a variety of provisions in state law they say make the sharing of services with neighbors financially unappealing. With Gov. Rick Snyder’s signature last week on a set of bills, the state believes it has removed a large hurdle to increased […]
Tom Ivacko
Posted inMichigan Government
Coming to your hometown: Fewer services
While there has been much talk in Lansing in recent weeks about reducing revenue — again — for local governments, the folks actually in charge of running public service on the city/township/village level are dealing with the consequences of previous reductions, caused either by a bad economy or state funding choices. Tom Ivacko and the […]
Posted inMichigan Government
No grass-roots for govn't consolidation
Last week, I drew attention to a memo from Eric Scorsone regarding the potential cost savings from consolidating local governments and services. My takeaway from the memo was that consolidation is not the big kahuna if your goal is simply to save money. The issue is far too nuanced for one single policy change to […]