League Blog

Monday - Andy Schor, Assistant Director, State Affairs

January 5, 2009

Lame Ducks Ride Out Into the Sunset

The 2007-8 Legislature made good on its waning days of session, going for 25 straight hours to finish up their business. And League staff were along for the ride…

The House and Senate convened the session day at 10 am on Thursday, December 18 and adjourned at 11:30 am on Friday, December 19. They were actively negotiating issues throughout most of that time.

For the League, we had some victories and some issues dies on the vine. The Detroit area also saw a great victory as the Legislature passed legislation allowing the Woodward Light Rail project to happen. It lays the groundwork for private interests to provide funding for the 3.5 mile light rail system that could be the anchor for an improved regional transit system. Villages throughout the state also won a victory with a fix to the election consolidation laws being sent to the governor. They will now have longer to incorporate into cities if they desire.

The League also beat back an attempt to allow greenbelt areas in townships to offer personal property tax abatements. Legislation to open up the core community list to allow communities in border counties was considered. At the urging of the League, the House changed the bill to only allow border communities with infrastructure (a mix of police, fire, sewer, water, trash, recycling) to offer these personal property tax abatements. The legislation went from devastating developed areas to allowing a few more developed communities to use this tool The change was a victory for League members who could not compete with 1 mill townships who do not have any infrastructure or labor/legacy costs due because they have no services.

Unfortunately, several important items died when the session ended. This included transit revitalization zones (which provided TIF districts for buses, trains, other public transit); transportation funding to plug the $1.5 billion hole and to match the upcoming federal stimulus; Public, Educational, Governmental (PEG) reform needed from the cable franchise legislation; preliminary examination legislation; and individual market reform for Blue Cross/Blue Shield.

These issues are expected to come up again next session, but with over 40 new House members their will be a significant learning curve. Stay tuned!

Tuesday - Andy Schor, Assistant Director, State Affairs

January 6, 2009

Legislature: 2009-10

It is a new year, and a new legislative session. That means new members of the House of Representatives (the Senate doesn’t change over until 2010).

What changed from last session? Well, last session the House had a majority of Democrats for the first time in eight years. That meant that incoming Speaker Andy Dillon and the rest of the Democrat caucus had to learn how to govern in the majority. And the Republicans in the House minority had to learn how to be the loyal opposition. It was quite a learning experience for both caucuses, and there were growing pains. The Senate remained in Republican hands, and Governor Granholm was not up for re-election, so everyone had to learn how to have divided government.

The upcoming session, though, does not have those challenges. The Democrats maintained control of the House. So we will still have divided government. The only real difference is that the Democrats greatly increased their numbers in the House. They now will have 67 members (and the Republicans will have 43). This is the biggest disparity between parties in many years.

So, the question will be: do the Democrats maintain party unity? There will be more members in the caucus that were not ever in the minority, and they will be accustomed to controlling the gavels. Will this cause problems internally? Or externally? That is a question that can’t be answered here.

For the League, we have great benefits in the new Legislature. Many of the new members come from our ranks. Former mayors and councilmembers. Former MML Presidents (2!). Many of the new members understand our issues and can advocate for cities, villages, and urban townships. We will continue to meet with and talk to the new members, and educate them about the importance of developed communities. The importance of services for residents and businesses. The fact that place matters when jobs and homeowners and renters are deciding where to locate.

The Senate and governor remain the same, and the House has 44 new members…so it should be an interesting two years.

Wednesday - Summer Minnick, League Director, State Affairs

January 7, 2009

Mentally Gearing Up

If you're like me you had a nice bit of time off for the holidays. I had some quality time with each of my little ones, did some home projects, and even got to see a movie with my hubby! So, now it's the first week of January and I face a serious task—mentally gearing up for some big things at work. Even though the Legislature isn't officially back for a few weeks, we have a lot of things to prepare for—meet and greets with the 40-plus new legislators, meetings with administration and leadership officials on the budget which has been in the works for months already.

We started meeting with administration officials months ago to press the 2009-10 budget and its impact on local communities—urging them to keep in mind the critical impact individual communities have on the economy of Michigan. We'll get a good preview of where we will stand in the governor's State of the State at the end of January or early February. As usual, it will set out the governor's priorities for the coming year. We expect to see a focus on some of the League's stated priorities—transit and transportation and additional economic development tools, among other policy areas. Within days of the State of the State the budget director will lay out the Executive Budget before a joint meeting of the House and Senate Appropriations Committees. If I had my way—there would of course be increases to revenue sharing, fire protection grants and transportation—but that may be a challenge with initial revenue estimates. According to some reports, the 2008-09 budget will face additional shortfalls in the coming months...and the 2009-10 budget will have even greater reduced revenues of hundreds of millions of dollars.

The official revenue estimating conference is this Friday when we will have a new set of numbers to work with. It is going to take a lot of effort to educate new legislators and remind the veterans of how crucial the success of local communities are to the state. So, I know I've got to wrap up sharing my holiday stories with co-workers (like, my favorite, how my 3 year old told Santa she wanted Chapstick for Christmas). This will be a very big year to gear up for indeed. And now, it's time to get to work in a serious way.

Thursday - David Worthams, Legislative Associate

January 8, 2009

When we last saw the 94th Michigan Legislature in action, they were busily working on a number of items related to transportation and transit issues. Despite their hard work, there are a number of items that we hope/expect the 95th Legislature to pick up when they convene for the first time this month.

Transit Issues
The 94th Legislature did enact laws that will enable the building of a Streetrail system on Woodward Ave. in the city of Detroit. This Streetrail will become the anchor of a much larger regional mass transit system for all of southeast Michigan. Of course, that will actually happen if the Legislature can provide for the right tools to municipalities that will help fund this endeavor. While private interests are providing the capital funds to build this system, it will be up to either the system or the municipalities served by the system to have the operational funds for it. Our attempt to provide transit tax increment financing (TIF) zones met a rocky conclusion last year, but we're going to bring it around this year and we'll make sure that it's clear from the beginning that we need all players involved and supportive of this.

Transportation Funding Issues
In addition, we need to remind both the 95th Legislature and the public of the pressing need to provide proper levels of funding for Michigan's transportation system (which includes roads, bridges, airports, rail, and mass transit operations). Our system, as many of you are aware, is crumbling at an alarming rate. The 95th Legislature should be extremely concerned about the 12,250 plus jobs Michigan is losing due to a lack of transportation funding. In addition, public transit systems (including the aforementioned streetrail system in Detroit and the bus-rapid transit project in Grand Rapids) will require an estimated yearly investment of $773 million. Currently, Michigan only spends around $250 million on our current transit operations. On top of all of that, Michigan could lose nearly $1 billion in federal road funds annually between 2010 and 2015 because we won't have the matching funds available.

But we need not fret right away. Towards the end of the 94th Legislature, the governor made a suggestion that she might be willing to move a $2 billion transportation funding increase. You can bet that the League will be very interested in supporting this potential package.

Environmental Issues
Over the holiday break, the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality forwarded draft legislation that would increase the solid waste surcharge that the state would charge municipalities for our waste operations. The League has previous expressed concerns about this proposal and we will continue to watch it closely.

Friday - Arnold Weinfeld, Director, Public Policy & Federal Affairs

January 9, 2009

The November 4th election brought changes both nationally and within Michigan. Along with the election of Barack Obama as president, Michigan voters in two congressional districts ousted incumbents, turning the balance of power within the state congressional delegation from 9-6 Republican to 8-7 Democrat. The two new members of Congress are former State Senator Mark Schauer from Battle Creek who defeated incumbent Tim Walberg and Gary Peters of Oakland County, who defeated Joe Knollenberg. Mr. Peters has served as both state Senator and most recently as state Lottery Commissioner.

Of course, state influence will also be impacted by the ouster of Congressman John Dingell as chair of the House Commerce and Energy committee. Congressman Dingell has been a tireless fighter for Michigan communities on any number of issues but particularly those involving cable and telecommunications. Despite the loss of his chairmanship, Congressman Dingell and the new chair of the committee, Congressman Henry Waxman of California, have announced a partnership whereby Mr. Dingell will serve as “Chairman Emeritus” of the committee and serve as an ex-officio member on all Energy and Commerce subcommittees.

In spite of the now nationwide recession, the election of Senator Obama as President has created a good “buzz” among organizations who advocate on behalf of communities. This was evident at the National League of Cities annual convention held this past November. There was a great deal of optimistic discussion about what a president from a major American city in the Midwest will bring to the table in the way of a renewed focus on policies and programs targeted toward cities.

That optimism has been met with a positive response as the flurry of activity continues regarding a new economic stimulus plan. Now coined the “American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan” it is expected that this initiative will provide anywhere from $500 billion to $1 trillion for a mix of programs designed to fight the current recession and create jobs. A significant amount of this money will be going to states and localities.

Among the programs to be funded include assistance to states to help cover Medicaid costs as well as unemployment, job training funds to include training for “green” jobs, and a significant amount for infrastructure with roads, streets, bridges, water, sewer, transit, rail, and school modernization—the most talked about examples of infrastructure projects. Funding is also expected for energy projects both as part of the recovery package and for the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant enacted last year to provide funding to communities to improve energy efficiency.

To make the case that there is need for funds to Michigan communities, the League has asked for and been receiving project information from our members throughout the state. This list will be used to show both our congressional delegation and the new federal administration, the pent-up demand for resources to rebuild Michigan’s infrastructure. The changes in Washington brings with it opportunities, and the League will be playing a more active role with our congressional delegation and partner organizations in Washington to help shape policies and programs that will benefit Michigan communities.