New report shows vital role that property taxes play in delivering county services
With talk of property tax changes swirling around Lansing, a new report from the University of Michigan highlights the central role that such taxes have in delivering vital county services.
“In FY 2024, counties continue to be the most reliant on property taxes, with 58.8 percent of their general fund revenue coming from this source,” states the Center for Local, State and Urban Policy (CLOSUP) in its “Fiscal Health of Michigan Local Governments” report. “Since FY 2022, reliance (on property taxes) has declined slightly across most jurisdiction types ― except for counties.” (emphasis added)
By contrast, while townships (39%) and villages (21%) rely notably on revenue sharing payments from the state, the median county only gets 5 percent of its General Fund resources from revenue sharing.
“Michigan local governments continue to exhibit generally stable budgetary solvency, but signs of strain are emerging across both general governmental and enterprise operations,” the report stated.
“Michigan’s system of local service delivery relies on the property tax. MAC’s position has long been that any discussion of property tax changes must be conducted with that fundamental principle in mind,” said MAC Executive Director Stephan Currie.
“We also would highlight for legislators’ attention a couple of additional data points. First, Michigan’s property tax burden is ranked 29th in the country by the Tax Foundation (TF), while TF had Michigan with the fifth-lowest state/local tax burden in 2022,” Currie added.
Learn more at 2026 Legislative Conference
Jared Walczak of the Tax Foundation will speak on Tuesday, April 28 at the Michigan Counties Legislative Conference on property taxes, including his 2025 report, “There’s No Good Way to Pay for Property Tax Repeal.” To register for the conference, click here.
For more information on MAC’s tax advocacy, contact Deena Bosworth at bosworth@micounties.org.
Podcast 83: Michigan House takes aim at clean energy standards, cap on work hours of retired sheriff employees
In a quick-hit episode this week, MAC’s Podcast 83 team discussed the House’s efforts to do away with two policies: the state’s clean energy standards and a cap on the number of hours worked by retired sheriff employees who return to service.
House Bill 5711, by Rep. Pat Outman (R-Montcalm) “would repeal the 100 percent clean energy standards by 2040 that was put into effect in 2023,” said Samantha Gibson, “and that coincided with the wind and solar reform efforts that we saw a few years back as well, the total preemption of local control for wind and solar siting. This is part of a larger effort that House Republicans have put forth to kind of walk back the energy reforms that the Democratic ‘trifecta’ did a few years ago.”
House Bill 4471, by Rep. Mike Harris (R-Oakland) seeks to remove the 1,000-hour cap on rehiring former sheriff’s office employees.
“I want to say it’s 13 counties that are not part of MERS and they cannot rehire former employees at the sheriff’s office for over 1,000 hours,” Gibson said. “Obviously, all the sheriff’s offices are facing staffing shortages in the jails and for road patrol, so bringing those additional counties in would allow them to alleviate some of those shortages.”
For more details, including a summary of a House report on Michigan’s food assistance program, watch the full episode, recorded March 16, by clicking here or on the image above.
Bloomberg Overdose Prevention Initiative
MAC’s Amy Dolinky joined colleagues from around the nation in February at a “partners convening” of the Bloomberg Overdose Prevention Initiative in New York City. Dolinky is shown with Nidhi Sachdeva, director of strategic health and opioid initiatives for the North Carolina Association of County Commissioners. To learn more about MAC’s opioid settlement work, click here.
MAC’s Amy Dolinky joined colleagues from around the nation in February at a “partners convening” of the Bloomberg Overdose Prevention Initiative in New York City. Dolinky is shown with Nidhi Sachdeva, director of strategic health and opioid initiatives for the North Carolina Association of County Commissioners. To learn more about MAC’s opioid settlement work, click here.
Staff Picks
