Governor Issues Special Message On Local Government Reform

In an effort to incentivize local governments to adopt best practices, Governor Rick Snyder released a plan in Grand Rapids Monday to distribute the $200 million in revenue sharing not under the Constitution in three categories: accountability and transparency; consolidation of services; and employee compensation.

The first third of revenue available to municipalities can be obtained by posting their financial data to an online portal by October 1^st, similar to the dashboard previously touted by the Administration. A municipality can obtain the second-third by developing a plan for service consolidation with other communities by year’s-end. The final third, considerably more complex, would require the municipality to have all new hires pay 20 percent of health care insurance and be placed in a defined contribution plan or other retirement plan with a capped employer contribution rate, among other items.

Failure to comply with any of the three categories would reduce funding; however, no state department or agency will be charged with enforcement. Local governments would be trusted, according to Governor Snyder, until the Administration is given a reason not to trust them.

The package of reform also contains efforts to assist local government in consolidating services through reform of PA 312 (the state’s binding arbitration law for fire and policy) instead of the elimination of it as the Legislature has been currently debating.

Reactions to the Governor’s plan were mixed, as expected. Democratic leaders in the Legislature were quick to criticize, while many of the Republicans that joined the Governor at the announcement, such as Senate Reform, Restructuring, and Reinvention Committee Chair Senator Mark Jansen (R-Gaines Township) described the message as “dead-on.” The Governor’s special message can be viewed in its entirety at:

http://www.michigan.gov/documents/snyder/2011Special_Message-1_348148_7.pdf

Labels: local government reform

posted by PAA Online , Friday, March 25, 2011 12:26 PM
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