In light of Republicans maintaining control of Michigan’s legislature, Gretchen Whitmer’s gubernatorial victory last week has many wondering if the newly-elected government will be able to reach bipartisan compromises or if the parties will entrench...

Now that the election is over, political conjecture is turning to what the newly elected will do in office, how (and even if) it forecasts 2020, and in some cases what sitting governments are doing before power changes hands in January. To help make...

Ann Arbor—Michigan’s local governments report mostly positive civil discourse among their jurisdiction’s elected officials but less so among residents, according to a University of Michigan survey.Among local elected leaders, 71 percent report...

In an opinion column for Governing, Tom Ivacko (MPP ’93), associate director of CLOSUP, breaks down the latest Michigan Public Policy Survey (MPPS) findings on civil discourse in Michigan localities.“Will the National Partisan Breakdown Infect Our...

In her latest journal article, published in Land Use Policy, Sarah Mills of the Ford School elaborates on public attitudes pertaining to wind energy development projects before and after the completion of the project. In “Exploring landowners’...

As the drive to develop renewable energy projects escalates, attention shifts towards harnessing wind energy as a reliable energy source. Despite the benefits wind energy provides—mainly jobs—advocates for wind energy must continue to combat...

After the Trump administration’s 2017 decision to back out of the Paris Agreement, a UN effort to mitigate harmful effects of greenhouse-gas-emissions, some members of congress began forming a bipartisan coalition to adopt the goals on a...

In recent years, divisiveness within the political arena has continued to widen the chasm between Democrats and Republicans, especially at the federal level. Municipal government in Michigan has largely remained insulated from such divisiveness,...

Understanding poverty in Michigan is the first step towards alleviating it, so people are playing particular attention to the recent Center for Local, State, and Urban Policy (CLOSUP) report on how local officials think about economic hardship. Much...

AMany local governments in Michigan report poverty and economic hardships among their residents, according to a survey from University of Michigan researchers. Almost half (44 percent) of local officials say more than one in five of their residents...