state and local government

On April 15, 2026, the Ford School's Center for Local, State, and Urban Policy (CLOSUP) celebrated a quarter century of impact. Approximately 75 current and former CLOSUP directors, staff, students, collaborators, and state legislators gathered in La...

When the Michigan Independent Citizens Redistricting Commission faced a tidal wave of public input—more than 30,000 comments—the Center for Local, State, and Urban Policy (CLOSUP) and Ford School students stepped in. Their analysis helped the commiss...

Michigan’s local officials are growing more pessimistic about their ability to maintain—let alone expand—services under the current local government funding system, according to a University of Michigan study. That’s the main takeaway from the latest...

Stephanie Leiser, an expert in public finance and local government fiscal health, has been appointed the next director of the Center for Local, State, and Urban Policy (CLOSUP) at the University of Michigan’s Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy. H...

The challenges facing big cities such as Detroit and Cleveland have been widely examined by experts over the decades, as each has dealt with the loss of population and major industries. Less chronicled are the situations in small- to medium-sized com...

In a Bridge Michigan op-ed, Leiser and Ivacko call for COVID relief to foster greater cooperation, trust in government built at the local level.  "Across the country, nearly three quarters of U.S. adults say they have a "great deal" or a "fair amou...

Findings from the most recent Michigan Public Policy Survey (MPPS), published by the Ford School’s Center for Local, State, and Urban Policy (CLOSUP), reveal broad concern by local leaders and administrators over property tax appeals. The survey sh...

Nearly two-thirds of Michigan’s local leaders believe that the state’s system of funding local government is broken and in need of reform. This belief is shared by a majority of local leaders from jurisdictions large and small, from every region of t...

The latest Michigan Public Policy Survey (MPPS), published by the Ford School's Center for Local, State, and Urban Policy (CLOSUP), finds that local leaders are less optimistic about the state’s direction. Statewide, only 44 percent of local leaders ...

Caption: Michigan State Capitol BuildingCredit: Photo by Matt Katzenberger, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0The Center for Local, State, and Urban Policy (CLOSUP) is offering a new undergraduate course for students looking for opportunities to work with survey resear...