MAC’s Deena Bosworth lays out the counties’ position on the need for tax-capture reform in this story from Port Huron on the workings of downtown development authorities in St. Clair County:

“These are unelected officials that are spending money on whatever they see fit … It should not be up to an unelected board to capture however much tax money they want and use it however they see fit.”

Tax-capture reform will be a priority for MAC in the 2015 legislative session. As always, please be sure to share with us your local experiences and input via email to melot@micounties.org. The more data and experience we can provide lawmakers, the more powerful our lobbying effort becomes.

For more background on tax-capture laws and MAC’s position them, review this briefing paper. (Please note you must be a registered member of the MAC website to access MAC briefing papers and other key documents. Be sure to register today at http://www.micounties.org/index.php/private-site/login?view=registration)

Six counties — Eaton, Mecosta, Oakland, Oceana, Ottawa and St. Clair — are among local governments landing funds via the “Competitive Grant Assistance Program” for work they are doing on “mergers, consolidations, interlocal agreements and cooperative efforts,” the Treasury Department announced Tuesday.

All together, the six counties will receive about $4.5 million.

Oakland will receive the lion’s share of that sum, $3.8 million for “collaboration by three counties to form the Great Lakes Water Authority” to fix and upgrade the Detroit water system.

The amounts and purposes for the other awards are:

• Eaton, $10,0001, for collaboration by area communities to determine the feasibility of shared recycling services.
• Mecosta, $601,641, for consolidation of morgue services with Newaygo County.
• Oceana, $13,750, for collaboration by area communities to determine the feasibility of shared fire services.
• Ottawa, $31,588, for consolidation of the Ottawa County Sheriff’s Office with the Village of Spring Lake/City of Ferrysburg Police Department.
• St. Clair, $10,500, for collaboration with Sanilac County to determine the feasibility of shared public health services.

For more information on the program, visit its official Web page.