Michigan Budget Director John Nixon.

LANSING, Michigan - Michigan’s budget woes have been notorious over the last decade, and our communities have taken the hit. While we now have a balanced budget under Governor Snyder’s administration, we aren’t seeing a dramatic change toward local communities. During the Michigan Municipal League's 2013 Capital Conference, attendees will have a chance to hear from State Budget Director John Nixon as well as panel of economists and experts to discuss trends in Michigan’s budgets and their effect on our local municipalities.

This "Taking Back the Budget" general session will occur 3:15-4:430 p.m. Wednesday, April 10, at the League's annual legislative conference. View the full conference agenda. Register online here. Nixon is among several top government officials headlining this year's Capital Conference. Also speaking are Governor Rick Snyder, and John Porcari, U.S. Deputy Secretary of Transportation. View all the speakers here.

More about John Nixon: He is is director of the Michigan Department of Technology and the State Budget Office, heading an agency of nearly 2,700 employees who provide a full range of services to Michigan's citizens, businesses, state agencies, state employees and retirees. In this role, Nixon is leading the department's mission of providing vital administrative and technology services to enable Michigan's reinvention, with the vision of making the State of Michigan one of the most innovative and responsive governments in the world. Nixon is a certified public accountant who came to Michigan from the State of Utah, where he served as director of the Governor's Office of Planning and Budget from 2006-2010. In 2012, Nixon was named Public Official of the Year by Governing magazine, which cited his role in Michigan's turnaround. He was also named one of Government Technology magazine's Top 25 Doers, Dreamers and Drivers in 2012, recognized for cutting through the public sector's barriers to innovation to reshape government operations for the better. He also was honored as the 2012 Outstanding CPA in Government by the Michigan Association of Certified Public Accountants. He was adjunct professor in the University of Utah MPA program and served as president of the National Association of State Budget Officers (NASBO) in 2010.

Matt Bach is director of media relations for the Michigan Municipal League. He can be reached mbach@mml.org and 734) 669-6317.

Governor Rick Snyder is to speak at the 2013 Michigan Municipal League Capital Conference.

Michigan Governor Rick Snyder will speak at the Welcoming Session during the Michigan Municipal League’s 2013 Capital Conference in Lansing, April 9-10. The governor will provide his administration's viewpoint on key policy issues confronting the state and local municipalities. We expect Governor Snyder to take questions from the audience so feel free to come and share what's on your mind.

The Governor is one of numerous top state and national officials coming to the 2013 Conference. Other speakers include U.S. Deputy Secretary of Transportation John D. Porcari; Mitch Bean, Great Lakes Economic Consulting, formerly served as the Director of the Michigan House Fiscal Agency; John E. Nixon, director of the Michigan Department of Technology and the State Budget Office; Senator Gretchen Whitmer, D-Lansing, is Senior Democratic Leader; Hiram Fitzgerald, associate provost for University Outreach and Engagement and a University Distinguished Professor in the Department of Psychology at Michigan State University; Debra Horner, a project manager with the University of Michigan Center for Local, State, and Urban Policy (CLOSUP) in the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy; Senator Roger Kahn, a Republican for the 32nd district, comprised of Saginaw and Gratiot counties; and Eric Lupher, Director of Local Affairs at the Citizens Research Council of Michigan.

The Conference is in just two weeks, but there's still time to register. Register today here.

Matt Bach is director of media relations for the Michigan Municipal League. He can be reached at mbach@mml.org and (734) 669-6317.

Porcari

LANSING, Michigan - With transportation being such an important topic in Michigan right now, the League is honored to announce that John Porcari, the United States Deputy Secretary of Transportation, will be speaking at the 2013 Michigan Municipal League Capital Conference.

Porcari will be the keynote lunch speaker at the conference 11:30-1 p.m. Wednesday, April 10, in Lansing. Porcari was nominated to serve as the U.S. Deputy Secretary of Transportation by the Obama administration in April of 2009 and was confirmed by the Senate in May of 2009. He previously served as the Deputy Secretary of the Maryland Department of Transportation in 1997 and 1998 and was also the secretary of the Maryland Department of Transportation on two separate occasions.

For more information about the League’s 2013 Capital Conference, go here.

Matt Bach is the League's Director of Media Relations. He can be reached at mbach@mml.org and (734) 669-6317.

This is one of more than 700 hundred photos from the League's 2012 Convention. Check out more here.

There are now hundreds of photos available in this collection on the Michigan Municipal League's flickr page from our 2012 Convention on Mackinac Island. Please check them out.

Also many of you asked for copies of the various presentations given during the many education sessions that took place during Convention. We are loading those on this page as quickly as we can.

Grandville officials celebrate winning the 2012 Community Excellence Award. Read the press release.

MACKINAC ISLAND, Michigan - The city of Grandville was honored with the Michigan Municipal League's 2012 Community Excellence Award on October 5 at the League's Annual Convention on Mackinac Island.

The peer-nominated Community Excellence Award, affectionately called “The Race for the Cup,” was started by the League in 2007 to recognize innovative solutions taking place in Michigan’s cities, villages and urban townships. Grandville’s expansion and renovation project created a clean water plant that incorporates innovative wastewater treatment technology.

Read more in this press release. View photos from the CEA competition.