Stephanie Leiser

Publication

Michigan's local governments make progress on budgeting, but many lag on long-term planning

May 6, 2026

In a time of economic volatility, relatively few local governments in Michigan report they are doing long-term financial planning—though many say they'd like to be doing more. The findings come in the latest installment of the Michigan Public Policy ...

Michigan's local governments make progress on budgeting, but many lag on long-term planning

News

CLOSUP marks 25 years at Lansing anniversary event

Apr 17, 2026

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...

CLOSUP marks 25 years at anniversary event

State & Hill

25 years of CLOSUP

Apr 11, 2026

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...

News

Government of, by and for people? Sure, but it needs more people to serve, U-M survey finds

Apr 8, 2026

Abraham Lincoln famously spoke of a government of, by and for the people. Yet it's getting harder to find people to serve in government, according to a survey of local leaders across Michigan. The findings come in the latest installment of the Michig...

Government of, by and for people? Sure, but it needs more people to serve, U-M survey finds

In the Media

Leiser discusses CLOSUP at 25 and the Michigan Public Policy Survey to Washtenaw County

Apr 7, 2026 WEMU

Director of the Center for Local, State and Urban Policy (CLOSUP) Stephanie Leiser discusses the Michigan Public Policy Survey that has implications for Michigan's local government leaders from well over a thousand counties, cities, villages and town...

Stephanie Leiser: Helping local goverments in Michigan become healthier and more resilient

News

Concerns about elected officials’ budgeting expertise emerges from survey of Michigan community leaders

Feb 4, 2026

A majority of Michigan city and village officials say they are concerned about the lack of budgeting expertise among the elected officials in their communities as they deal with rising economic and political uncertainty and challenging state and fede...

Concerns about elected officials’ budgeting expertise emerges from survey of Michigan community leaders

In the Media

Local democracy is holding strong, but rural communities are falling behind - Leiser

Dec 20, 2025 The Conversation

According to our recent survey of officials in Michigan communities, local democracy is humming along and city hall is taking care of business. The federal government was shut down in October and November 2025, but cities and towns around the United ...

Local democracy is holding strong, but rural communities are falling behind - Leiser

Publication

Fiscal stress rising among Michigan communities, particularly in small, rural towns, U-M survey finds

Dec 17, 2025

Fewer than half of Michigan's smaller and more rural communities report good fiscal health, reflecting a trend of rising financial stress among local governments across the state and growing concerns about having enough money to keep up with increase...

Fiscal stress rising among Michigan communities, particularly in small, rural towns, U-M survey finds

News, State & Hill

Students build career-ready grant writing skills in Aid & Development Workshop series

Dec 8, 2025

Mastering technical and theoretical content is just the beginning for public policy students.Paulo Quequezana Barrientos (MPP ‘26), and 18 of his colleagues recently completed the annual Aid & Development Workshop series, designed to complement their...

Students build career-ready grant writing skills in Aid & Development Workshop series

Policy Matters

To shore up American democracy, look to city hall

Nov 20, 2025

Recent years have seen increasing concerns over the state of democracy in the US, with a majority of Americans believing it to be under threat. Using data from an annual survey, Stephanie Leiser, Debra Horner, and Natalie Fitzpatrick find that local ...

To shore up American democracy, look to city hall

News

Trust falls among Michigan’s local officials that residents can be responsible partners in policymaking

Nov 19, 2025

The trust Michigan's local leaders have that the residents they serve can responsibly participate in the policymaking process has eroded to alarmingly low levels. Further, the officials' assessments of the tone of civil discourse among residents has ...

News

Likelihood, potential impacts of federal shutdown: Ford School experts can comment

Oct 1, 2025

EXPERTS ADVISORY University of Michigan researchers are available to share their insights on a federal government shutdown at the end of the day Tuesday, unless lawmakers break the impasse and make a deal before then. Stephanie Leiser is a lecturer a...

Likelihood, potential impacts of federal shutdown: U-M experts can comment

In the Media

Leiser: possibility of state shutdown is difficult to predict

Sep 19, 2025 Midland Daily News

The likelihood of a shutdown is difficult to predict, said Stephanie Leiser, who leads the Michigan Local Government Fiscal Health Project at the University of Michigan’s Center for Local, State, and Urban Policy and has worked as a tax policy analys...

Leiser: possibility of state shutdown is difficult to predict

News

Stephanie Leiser named director of the Center for Local, State, and Urban Policy (CLOSUP) as center marks 25th anniversary

Aug 28, 2025

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...

News

IPC’s Aid and Development Workshop series helps students meet the moment

Aug 11, 2025

Grant writing and proposal development, once useful skills, have become essential for international development professionals, according to Ford School lecturer Amy Beck Harris. “As international organizations undergo sweeping changes, the actual ski...

IPC’s Aid and Development Workshop series helps students meet the moment

News

U-M develops free tool to empower municipalities, modernize financial reporting

May 19, 2025

Free webinar June 4 will demo the Excel to iXBRL Conversion toolA free, open-source tool designed by the University of Michigan's Ford School of Public Policy is now available to help local governments make financial data more accessible. Developed ...

U-M develops free tool to empower municipalities, modernize financial reporting

Alumni spotlight, State & Hill

Building tech to support small towns: U-M team develops digital tool for SEC compliance

May 9, 2025

When Congress passed the Financial Data and Transparency Act (FDTA) in 2022, it required all municipalities in the U.S. to modernize and digitize their financial reports. This is a heavy lift for small towns and school districts, most of which still ...

Building tech to support small towns: U-M team develops digital tool for SEC compliance

Publication

CLOSUP’s second annual report analyzes local government fiscal health

Mar 27, 2025

“Local governments provide services—clean water, plowed streets, courts, elections—that keep our economy and democracy working smoothly. Just like we get regular health checkups to take good care of ourselves, we should also regularly check the ‘vita...

News

Lacking a playbook for dealing with economic decline, leaders of smaller cities opt for pragmatism, flexibility

Mar 10, 2025

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...

News

Ford School researchers to study Michigan’s education governance

May 1, 2024

In partnership with the Michigan Department of Education (MDE), a team of researchers from the Ford School will conduct a study into how Michigan’s education governance system can be improved for the benefit of public school students. “An effective s...

Ford School researchers to study Michigan’s education governance

In the Media

Leiser on the far-right shift in the Ottawa County government

Oct 5, 2023 MLive

“It’s almost as if instead of leading with, ‘OK, what’s our job in this jurisdiction in this county? What services do we provide?’ – and then sort of taking the cues from citizens and policy from there – it’s like a flipped script,” said Stephanie Le...

Leiser on the far-right shift in the Ottawa County government

News

PPIA students reflect on their summer of study and social life

Aug 2, 2023

What are the dynamics of inequity in labor markets? How do we determine appropriate categories for people in a multicultural society? How is the U.S. approach to ethnicity and nationality different from what they are doing in Europe? These were s...

PPIA students reflect on their summer of study and social life

News

Ford School welcomes PPIA 2023 cohort

Jun 19, 2023

The 2023 Public Policy and International Affairs (PPIA) Junior Summer Institute (JSI) has welcomed 23 students from 11 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. This year’s cohort will spend seven weeks taking classes, participating in polic...

State & Hill

Quantum leap

May 3, 2023

City of Flint and CLOSUP work toward transparency in municipal financial reporting By Daniel Rivkin When City of Flint CFO Rob Widigan looks at his required annual financial reporting to the state of Michigan, he sighs. His department needs to com...

In the Media

Leiser makes case for Financial Data Transparency Act

Mar 28, 2023 Accounting Today

Stephanie Leiser, Accounting Today: "There's an enormous amount of municipal government financial data locked up in PDF documents. Unlocking that data has the potential to radically improve transparency and dramatically enhance our ability to underst...

News

Leiser shares expertise on government financial reporting in webinar

Jan 29, 2023

The Center for Local, State, and Urban Policy (CLOSUP) has been partnering with XBRL US, to work with the City of Flint to explore whether a new fiscal reporting mechanism for governmental entities can help create transparency—and prevent future fina...

In the Media

Leiser applauds Financial Data Transparency Act

Dec 26, 2022 XBRL US

Stephanie Leiser, XBRL US: "Making government financial data open and accessible to all is the right thing to do, and it is long overdue. Financial transparency is absolutely essential to maintaining trust between governments and the public. Equally ...

Publication

New law on data transparency will improve governance - Leiser

Dec 20, 2022

Increasing transparency in how local government works got a boost when the U.S. Congress passed the Financial Data Transparency Act (FDTA) on December 15, 2022. The act requires the Securities and Exchange Commission to adopt data standards related t...

New law on data transparency will improve governance - Leiser

In the Media

Leiser on building a better local government financial reporting system

Aug 23, 2022 The Bond Buyer

Through a Michigan pilot program, Stephanie Leiser and the Center for Local, State, and Urban Policy are building a taxonomy for machine-readable local government financial documents. "Transparency into local government fiscal health is needed to ...

News

CLOSUP in consortium launching review of Flint government financial data standards

Jun 15, 2022

Governments, standard setters, regulators and analysts encouraged to provide input A pilot project involving the University of Michigan and others is exploring whether a new fiscal reporting mechanism for governmental entities can help create trans...

CLOSUP in consortium launching review of Flint government financial data standards