Creating a dedicated Revenue Sharing Trust Fund that reflects a true sharing of money between the state and local governments tops the list of legislative priorities for MAC’s 83 members in 2025.
Legislation for this long-needed reform won overwhelming bipartisan approval in the House in the last Legislature, but political squabbles in Lansing in December 2024 derailed it in the Senate. Despite this setback, counties remain committed to a necessary reform to ensure proper delivery of local public services, said MAC’s director of governmental affairs.
“Michigan’s 83 counties are unique in the current revenue sharing system in that every last dollar for counties must come through the annual budget process, making county revenue sharing particularly uncertain,” Deena Bosworth said. “And we don’t have to look back far to see how this jeopardizes proper funding. In the state’s fiscal 2024 budget process, county revenue sharing shrank from more than $285 million to $261 million, a 9 percent drop in a matter of months. This legislation is essential to ending this uncertainty and resulting disruption to local services.”
MAC also is among advocates for quick action to reform minimum wage and sick time rules that could leave counties scrambling to ensure proper staffing within financial constraints.
Other county goals for 2025 in Lansing are:
- Compensating Local Governments for Funds Diverted by the Veterans Property Tax Exemption
- Adopting a Permanent State Solution to Funding Michigan’s Courts
- Increasing Road Funding to Address Michigan’s Infrastructure Crisis
“So much was left on the legislative ‘table’ last year that the coming year could be one of great progress, if lawmakers from both parties can find their way toward common ground,” said MAC Executive Director Stephan Currie. “As always, our members, as locally elected leaders, simply want to partner with state officials to make government work more effectively for our communities.”
For more information on MAC’s advocacy work, visit www.micounties.org or contact Deena Bosworth at bosworth@micounties.org.