Today, the Michigan Municipal League sent a letter to each individual member of Michigan’s congressional delegation asking that they include direct support for local governments, regardless of population size, alongside any new investment in the Paycheck Protection Program.
And we’ve prepared a similar letter that all our members can send to their Congressional delegates as well. Click here to access that letter and please send it today!
The letters emphasize that the residents of our state rely upon local governments for public health, fire and police services, infrastructure and public works, elections, courts and criminal justice, veteran services, and protecting the homeless, among countless other functions. Communities across Michigan continue to provide these critical services, even during the current crisis where the severely limited revenue streams available to Michigan’s local governments are disappearing at an alarming rate. Michigan’s local governments bore the brunt of the recent Great Recession and have still not recovered to pre-recession levels. We cannot afford to ignore them during this current crisis, or we risk serious damage to the services all our residents rely upon every day.
Michigan’s local governments need direct financial support from the federal government and we need the flexibility to replace lost revenues. These additional resources will ensure that local governments can continue to support their front-line personnel that keep our communities safe.
This letter was signed by Brenda F. Moore, Mayor Pro Tem of Saginaw and President of the Michigan Municipal League Board of Trustees; Rosalynn Bliss, Mayor of Grand Rapids and Chair of the Urban Core Mayors; Pauline Repp, Mayor of Port Huron and President of the Michigan Association of Mayors; Kerreen Conley, Mayor of Belleville and Conference of Western Wayne Chairperson, Dan Gilmartin, Executive Director and CEO of the Michigan Municipal League, Kathleen Lomako, Executive Director of the Southeast Michigan Council of Governments; and Robert Stevenson, Executive Director of the Michigan Association of Chiefs of Police.
For a copy of the letter we sent to Congressman Mitchell, please click the following link. Letter to Michigan’s Congressional Delegation on Direct Funding 4-21-2020
John LaMacchia is the Assistant Director of State and Federal Affairs for the League handling transportation, infrastructure, energy and environment issues. He can be reached at [email protected] or 517-908-0303.