SaveMICity Cover Story Humanizes Municipal Finance Problem

Two years after its debut, the SaveMICity initiative is gaining momentum as we get ready to launch the next phase of the campaign during the week of the League’s 2018 Convention. In anticipation of that launch, we’ve laid the groundwork for SaveMICity 2.0 in the cover story of this month’s issue of The Review magazine.

But perhaps more importantly, the cover story puts a face on the municipal funding problem by giving specific examples of the challenges our communities deal with on a daily basis. Our research has shown that that’s what people want to know. See the forlorn face of Vassar City Manager Brian Chapman as he looks at one of the blighted homes his community can’t afford to fix. Read about the 20-year-old vehicles in the City of Cadillac’s fleet that they can’t replace. And learn about the tax bills in Fraser that were recently increased by 50 percent just to maintain the most basic level of services. These are just some of the ways that Michigan’s broken system of municipal finance is negatively affecting communities all over the state.

In this edition, we also pose questions to the Democratic and Republican governor candidates on issues of importance to communities. See where they stand on attracting talent, local government funding, investing in communities, infrastructure, and legacy costs.

Read these stories and more in the September/October issue of The Review magazine.