In November 2018, the citizens of Michigan passed Proposal 2, which amended the Michigan Constitution to place congressional and state legislative redistricting in the hands of a new Michigan Independent Citizens Redistricting Commission (MICRC)...
The state’s housing agency aims to dangle a carrot in front of local governments as part of an effort to spur more housing. The Michigan State Housing Development Authority (MSHDA) on Thursday rolled out $5 million in grants to support the state’s...
The state’s housing agency aims to dangle a carrot in front of local governments as part of an effort to spur more housing. The Michigan State Housing Development Authority (MSHDA) on Thursday rolled out $5 million in grants to support the state’s...
Typically, people use the phrase “state and local government,” as though they are two entirely separate sets of entities. But unless the states and their cities, counties and towns work together smoothly, impediments to progress abound. Some...
Local government leaders across Michigan reported in a recent survey a decline in satisfaction in their overall relationship with state government leaders may in part be due to changes in the partisan makeup of its leadership, a recent survey found....
Dawn Crandall of the Home Builders Association of Michigan describes the state’s housing crisis as ongoing, with supply being limited, demand remaining really high and individuals seeking workforce housing getting “bumped even further down the...
About 60 University of Michigan students and Ann Arbor community members gathered in Weill Hall Wednesday evening to listen to a conversation about rural communities and sustainability in the United States. Hosted by the Center for Local, State, and...
Dr. Debra Horner, senior program manager for the Center for Local, State, and Urban Policy at the University of Michigan, talks to Guy Gordon, Lloyd Jackson, and Jamie Edmonds about their survey on the relationship between local officials and state...
A new policy brief presents local government officials’ assessments of the relationship between their jurisdiction and Michigan’s state government. These findings are based on statewide surveys of local government leaders in the spring 2023 wave of...
A recent survey by the Center for Local, State, and Urban Policy at the University of Michigan found officials in many of the state's communities feel they lack affordable housing. The Michigan Public Policy survey found 27% of respondents said they...
More local leaders, in rural, suburban and urban communities throughout Michigan, are raising alarms about housing shortages. The number of local officials reporting a lack of single-family housing has nearly doubled in the past six years – going...
As unprecedented state and federal funding opportunities have emerged over the past 18 months with the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill, Michigan local government leaders have expressed concerns about...
A new policy brief presents Michigan local government leaders’ views on their jurisdiction’s capacity for pursuing external grant funding from the state and federal governments. These findings are based on statewide surveys of local government...
Concerns among local government leaders in the Upper Peninsula about housing shortages in their communities have more than doubled since 2017. Today, 59% of officials from U.P. cities, villages, and townships say they have too little single-family...
Concerns among local government leaders in the Upper Peninsula about housing shortages in their communities have more than doubled since 2017. Today, 59% of officials from U.P. cities, villages, and townships say they have too little single-family...
The University of Michigan Center for Local, State, and Urban Policy and Poverty Solutions with the Ford School of Public Policy will launch a study to evaluate attitudes toward certain criminal justice reforms by polling the local government...
The University of Michigan Center for Local, State, and Urban Policy and Poverty Solutions with the Ford School of Public Policy will launch a study to evaluate attitudes toward certain criminal justice reforms by polling the local government...
In the wake of racial justice movements across the country, the state of Michigan and some of its communities have been implementing new public safety and criminal justice policies. The perspective of Michigan’s local government, public safety and...
A new policy brief presents the views of Michigan local government leaders on a range of issues regarding public employee unions in their jurisdictions, including their governments’ relationships with their employee unions, whether their unions are...
Federal funds intended to stabilize the budgets of local communities have proven a daunting task to take down for multiple reasons, a recent policy survey by the University of Michigan found. Cities, villages and townships trying to spend the $4.4...
Most Michigan local governments are spending their federal pandemic aid on capital projects, while facing challenges from rising project costs and uncertainty about future funding. A new survey from the University of Michigan's Center for Local,...
The federal government offered $1.9 trillion to help local governments stabilize their budgets in 2021 through the American Rescue Plan Act, but two years later, many local leaders in Michigan say inflation and supply chain challenges are making the...
Often, local governments decry a lack of needed funding. But in a twist, a new University of Michigan survey found unique challenges faced by Michigan localities trying to spend some of the billions of dollars in federal COVID-19...
The 2021 American Rescue Plan Act provides $4.4 billion to help local governments. The Michigan Public Policy Survey of nearly 2,000 local governments in the last two years has asked leaders about their experiences with the federal outlay. Most...
Often, local governments bemoan the lack of necessary funds. But in a twist, a new University of Michigan survey found Michigan areas facing unique challenges trying to spend billions of dollars in federal COVID-19...
A new policy brief presents Michigan local government leaders’ views on the federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), including plans for spending the funds, problems the jurisdiction is facing, and expectations for benefits from the funding. These...
The survey showed that 60% of Michigan’s local leaders say the state is on the wrong track in 2023. 30% believe the state is on the right track. 11% are...
Nearly 60 percent of Michigan’s local government leaders say the state is on the wrong track in 2023, according to a recent University of Michigan survey. Specifically, 59 percent see the wrong track, less than the 62 percent in 2022 and the high of...
A new policy brief presents the opinions of Michigan’s local government leaders regarding the direction in which the state is headed, as well as their evaluations of the job performance of Governor Gretchen Whitmer and the Michigan Legislature....
