Removing Barriers to Local Consolidation

Local units of government are getting creative at managing budgets.  With the state of our economy, they have to.  Heath care and retirement, human resources and overall operations costs are continuing to increase while property tax revenue continues to decrease.  When you do the math, it doesn’t add up. 

Consolidation has been one of the buzz words over the last few years.  Local units are being asked by Lansing to consolidate services in order to save money.   In theory, consolidation is a great idea, and it’s something many municipalities are considering.  The problem is that there are several big hurdles to consolidation that we have to fix in Lansing in order to make consolidation work. 

In today's Detroit News, Rep. Paul Opsommer (R-DeWitt),  wrote a great editorial underscoring the importance of removing local barriers to consolidation.  The Urban Cooperation Act and PA 312 remain huge obstacles to real cost savings for local units.  We are encouraging our members to contact their legislators and emphasize the importance of amending these acts in order to have a real, substantive discussion on reforms.

We can talk about consolidation in Lansing until we’re blue in the face.  Local units of government are even open to the idea, but without changes to the Urban Cooperation Act and PA 312, it’s nothing but talk.