Flint Mayor Uses SaveMICity Data in Presenting Budget
The SaveMICity initiative is an effort to inform the public, lawmakers, media and anyone who will listen about our state’s broken system for funding it’s communities. In spreading this message, we’ve gathered a ton of data, resources and research information to support our case for why and how the system is broken and what we should do to fix it.
The information is readily available to the public on our SaveMICity.org website. We’re excited whenever anyone uses this information, but are particularly excited when our members use this data – and it happens a lot.
Just this week the City of Flint Mayor Sheldon Neeley used some SaveMICity info when presenting his budget plan for the future. Here’s an excerpt from an mlive.com article about that:
“City officials said ‘a lack of adequate state funding’ is a ‘core issue’ in Flint. The city has been underfunded by more than $44 million in state revenue-sharing between 2013 and 2017, according to the Michigan Municipal League.
And here is an expanded explanation from an official city press release about the Mayor’s budget proposal:
One core issue in Flint, like all Michigan cities, remains a lack of adequate state funding. In just five years, the state has underfunded Flint by more than $44 million dollars (2013-2017, the most recent year available. Source: Michigan Municipal League at savemicity.org). Since 2003, Flint alone has been shortchanged by more than $101 million in state revenue-sharing.
“There needs to be a dramatic change in state funding in the very near future for us to maintain our financial stability,” said Eric Scorsone, a municipal funding expert who helped guide the administration’s budget process. “This is not a typical budget, but traditional budgeting models and budget cuts simply won’t work here. This is what it really costs to run the City of Flint. Now, we have to look for solutions to create a sustainable funding model moving forward.”
We appreciate Mayor Neeley’s use of this information and encourage other communities to do use it as well.
Here are some other related articles where media and communities have used SaveMICity information:
- Cadillac News: Loss of Revenue Sharing Dollars Impacting Local Municipalities
- Muskegon Times: Muskegon Mayor Named to MML Board, To Tackle State’s Disinvestment in Our Cities
- WLNS TV, Lansing: Study Says Michigan Cities Have 12 percent less revenue than 15 years ago
- National publication Governing.com: With Less State Aid, Localities Look for Ways to Cope
If you would like to use savemicity.org information please contact the League’s Matt Bach at mbach@mml.org.
