Allegan County Board of Commissioners Chairman Mark DeYoung and fellow Allegan Commissioner Jon Campbell were presented the first place award in the Center for Digital Government’s 2015 Digital Survey Awards at the National Association of Counties’ Annual Conference this week.

Allegan, which won in the under 150,000 population category, was honored for offering 27 different online services, including its online GIS Data Library, which citizens and customers can download at no cost. Judges also made note of the county’s Connect with Us social media portal and its collaboration with Kent and Ottawa counties on procurement. “This solution and the consortium created by these three counties serve as a model for other municipalities across the state of Michigan,” the judges wrote.

Campbell also serves as president of the MAC Board of Directors.

Several other Michigan counties received honors at the event.

Oakland County won third place in the over 500,000 category for its suite of programs, including a countywide social media strategy, its G2G (Government to Government) Marketplace.

Commissioner Don Disselkoen of Ottawa County, also a MAC Board member, was on hand to pick up his county’s sixth place award in the 250,000 to 449,999 category.

Jackson County Commissioner Sarah Lightner accepted her county’s 10th place award in the 150,000 to 249,999 category. Berrien County received fifth place in the same population category.

The 2015 Digital Counties Survey, conducted by e.Republic’s Center for Digital Government, highlights counties across the country that are digital leaders. Established in 1984, e.Republic is the nation’s only media and research company focused exclusively on state and local government and education.

“This is an outstanding example of how Michigan counties are using innovation and technology to protect and enhance public services in tight budgetary times,” said Tim McGuire, executive director of MAC. “As these results show, counties of any size can find new ways to help their residents.”

Two members of the Michigan Association of Counties (MAC) were informed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently that their grant applications for brownfield assessments were accepted. Alger County will receive $196,100, while Jackson County will get $400,000. Each county was approved for “community-wide” assessments, the EPA announced. For Alger County, the successful notice comes after several years of tweaking proposals to address longstanding contamination issues, assisted by MAC’s Grant Services Program. “This grant took a different and creative approach by only requesting enough funds to address redevelopment problems and financial barriers at the top four highest priority brownfield sites in the county,” explained Gabriel Zawadzki, who leads MAC’s Grant Services Program. “Three of these sites are located in the heart of downtown Munising along M28 — the major northern corridor through the Upper Peninsula and the gateway to Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore.” Alger County Board of Commissioners Chairman Jerry Doucette said the county is eager to get to work to bring these properties back into productive use. “We were fortunate to have the assistance of MAC and its experts at AKT Peerless and Envirologic to ensure that, this time, we would be successful in convincing the EPA of the importance of our proposal,” added Doucette, who also serves as first vice president of MAC. In all, the EPA approved seven of the 26 applications from Michigan in this round of funding. In addition to Alger and Jackson counties, the successful applicants were: the city of Detroit, the Downriver Community Conference, the Genesee County Land Bank, the city of Lansing and the Muskegon Brownfield Redevelopment Authority. Total funding gained via the grants exceeds $2.5 million.

MAC President Jon Campbell took to the pages of the Detroit Free Press today (May 29) to draw more attention to the growing crisis presented to local government services by the “dark stores” property tax technique: “This gaming of the system, known in tax circles as the ‘dark stores’ technique, must come to a halt before counties and communities across Michigan are stripped of the resources to operate basic public services. “Here’s how it works: Lawyers for the retailers convinced the Michigan Tax Tribunal, an unelected panel with jurisdiction over property tax appeals, to drop the traditional method of valuing such property based on the cost to construct a store, and instead, they convinced the tribunal to set values based on ‘comparable sales.’ These comparable sales, however, are few and far between in the world of big box retailing, which means comparisons are often to vacant structures or buildings that have been converted to unusual or non-retailing uses. “Retailers may also use deed restrictions to ensure that when they upgrade to a new or larger facility, their old facility can’t be purchased and utilized by a competing retailer, resulting in more boarded-up buildings in our communities.” MAC, led by Governmental Affairs Director Deena Bosworth, has been working closely with key legislators, such as Sen. Tom Casperson, and other government officials to craft a legislative fix to the dark stores problem.

The Michigan Department of Treasury reports that liquor tax distributions to counties will decline to $49.88 million in fiscal 2016, from $73.75 million in fiscal 2015. The 4 percent liquor tax that gets distributed to counties across the state is set to expire at the end of 2015. Back in 2008, the Legislature refinanced the Cobo Hall facility in Detroit and extended the liquor tax. As part of that package of bills, counties would still receive the liquor tax, but would be limited to receiving only that amount that was collected in their county. Currently the liquor taxes collected in Oakland, Macomb and Wayne counties are distributed to the rest of the counties. In essence, the liquor taxes collected in those three counties have subsidized the amounts to the rest of the state. In FY 2015, those 80 counties are receiving approximately 200 percent of the liquor taxes actually paid in their jurisdictions. For FY16, Treasury says, “The 80 ‘out-state’ counties will receive 101 percent of the FY 15 liquor tax collections in their county. Macomb, Oakland, and Wayne share 101 percent of the FY 15 liquor tax collections in the three counties, which is estimated to be a slight increase compared to their estimated FY 15 distribution. Macomb and Oakland counties get a portion of the liquor taxes collected in Detroit.” To see the county-by-county figures, click here.

MAC committees on the environment and economic development are tackling some intriguing issues in their sessions on April 17. The Economic Committee will be looking at the value of altering state law on hotel/motel taxes. The Citizens Research Council of Michigan has produced a handy one-page summary of what current law allows. The Environmental Committee will hear from Krystle Sacavage of the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission about that state’s regulations and “impact fees” on hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking.” If you are a commissioner interested in serving on one of MAC’s committees (Environmental and Regulatory Affairs; Economic Development and Taxation; Judiciary and Public Safety; Health and Human Services; and Transportation) contact Casey Steffee at steffee@micounties.org for an application and more information.