Paw Paw Village Manager Larry Nielsen is a none-too-happy camper with the State of Michigan today and is venting his wrath over the current state of affairs when it comes to state revenue sharing. Nielsen posted a blunt comment on Facebook today encouraging fellow municipal leaders to check a new database that will likely turn their stomachs over the sheer volume of money they have been “shorted” on by the state.
Here’s what Nielsen had to say:
“Paw Paw was shorted $1,530,048.86. Check how much your community was shorted as the State has not kept its promises to fund state shared revenue. The site below also has the history of state shared revenue.”
The Michigan Municipal League has established a project called SaveMICity which has created a database to clearly showcase the dramatic shortfall in promised revenue sharing that has failed to materialize, leaving local municipalities across the state to fend for themselves.
Organizers of the website www.SaveMiCity.org report, “The state of Michigan has now diverted more than $8.1 billion in revenue sharing from Michigan municipalities, including cities, villages, townships and counties since 2002. This new figure adds in 2016 financial data and dates back to 2002. Through 2015 the total was $7.5 billion in diverted revenue sharing dollars and the new figure now reflects the most recent 2016 data.”
That data shows that units of government in Berrien County have been shorted by more than $52-million in that same time period ranging from the Village of Michiana’s $40,701.44 shortfall to Benton Harbor’s $8,829,133.60 over that same timeframe. St. Joseph has been shorted more than $4-million, Benton Township nearly $5.5-million, and St. Joseph Charter Township just over $1.8-million.
The numbers are staggering in some cases and can all be found in the organization’s database by clicking the link below:
http://www.savemicity.org/search/
SaveMiCity says, “The consistent re-direction of revenue sharing funds away from Michigan communities is part of the reason that the state’s system for funding its communities is broken. The Michigan Municipal League’s saveMIcity initiative has been active for more than a year now and we’ve traveled to more than 30 communities speaking to thousands of people about the broken system and need for change.”
They add, “The current system for funding municipalities is broken in multiple ways, including that it doesn’t track with the economy. Michigan is recovering from the recession and housing crisis, but property tax revenue to communities doesn’t rebound as quickly as it fell. In addition, as property tax revenue declined, the state also reduced to communities another major income source, called revenue sharing.”
The MML contends that the state cut anticipated revenue sharing to communities from 2002-2016 by $8.1 billion, adding that, “From 2002-2012, Michigan was the only state in the nation where municipal revenue actually fell, and there has been little improvement since then. That means cities have laid off first responders and been unable to maintain roads and infrastructure, let alone provide the services that attract college graduates, the lifeblood of today’s middle class.”
The League through their saveMIcity initiative is trying to fix the system by developing policy recommendations around three themes: Cost containment, revenue enhancement and structure of government.
Stay tuned to see how it all shakes out going forward.
