Treasury has released their updated projections for Constitutional revenue sharing. We have been aware that due to the delay in the certification of the census there would need to be an adjustment to the disbursement amounts to each city, village, and township. State law says every local unit is eligible to receive their per capita Constitutional revenue sharing payment with the new census numbers as of October of 2020.

Treasury was unable to finalize inputting new population numbers due to the long delay in the state receiving it from US Census. This resulted in every community continuing to be paid based on their 2010 population. Since communities are eligible to receive their adjusted payments going back to October of 2020, that means anyone that grew in population has been “underpaid” for that period and any community that declined in population has been “overpaid” since that time

As a result of this adjustment, communities that have been “overpaid” will have funds withheld from their April revenue sharing payment, and in some cases their June and August payment as well, to account for this adjustment.

Treasury posted the following report outlining the adjustments for each community.

The reports are:

1. 2020 Census Adjustments for FY 2021 & FY 2022 – Constitutional 03 02 22 – This report provides, for each local unit, the 2020 census numbers, the original constitutional amounts issued, the recalculated constitutional amounts and the census adjustment amounts for FY 2021 and FY 2022.
2. FY 2022 Constitutional Projections 2020 Census – January Consensus 03 02 22 – This report provides, for each local unit, the total amount of constitutional revenue sharing payments issued (Oct 2021 – Feb 2022), the projected constitutional revenue sharing payments for Apr, Jun and Aug 2022.  The projected payments include the census payment adjustments.
3. FY 2023 Constitutional Projections Gov Rec – January Consensus 03 02 22 – This report provides, for each local unit, the projected constitutional revenue sharing payments for FY 2023 (by payment month) based on the January Consensus and Governor’s Executive Recommendation.

Not posted on Treasury’s webpage is is a report (Constitutional Census Adjustment Increases Decreases 03 02 22) which shows the census adjustment amount for each local unit. Please click on the following link to view that report. Constitutional Census Adjustment Increases Decreases 03 02 22

We anticipated this problem arising and have proactively been in contact with the State Budget Office, and Senate and House Appropriations Chairs. As a result of that advocacy, the Governor’s budget recommendations included $50M in hold harmless funds to avoid have funds from communities that were “overpaid” being clawed back.

Since the release of these numbers, we have reached back out to the budget office and appropriations staff and asked them to take immediate action to address this issue and hold our communities harmless. To ensure the claw back does not take place in the April revenue sharing payment, we need the Legislature to act before April 1. We will be aggressively pursuing this appropriation and ask that you reach out to your legislator and ask that they take action before April 1. This appropriation does not impact those that were “underpaid” as those communities will receive the funds that state law requires be paid.

John LaMacchia is the League’s director of state & federal affairs. He can be reached at [email protected] or 517-908-0303.