Inside 208

Mrach 1st arrived with no deal on “sequestration,” the federal deadline for the $85 Billion in spending cuts to go into effect. These cuts will now be set in motion over the next several months and will impact many programs that assist cities such as the Community Development Block Grant [...]

About $85 Billion in Federal Spending Reductions are set to go into effect for the remainder of fiscal year 2013 if Congress fails to negotiate a compromise by this Friday, March 1st. At this point, hope is diminishing that both sides can reach an agreement because each party has prepared their [...]

On New Years Day Congress delayed the fiscal cliff, in part, because of a delay in sequestration. Sequestration is the term for automatic spending cuts of billions of dollars that would go into effect primarily in defense spending, but across the board in many other federal programs as well. The [...]

The March 1st deadline for major federals pending cuts which was enabled to avoid the fiscal cliff on January 1st is now fast approaching. The cuts total $85 Billion and would mostly impact defense spending, but would also cut programs throughout the federal budget. The House has stated this week [...]

(View photos from the event here). Municipal managers from throughout Michigan were in Rochester this week (Jan. 29-Feb. 1, 2013) for the 2013 Michigan Local Government Management Association (MLGMA) Winter Institute. The theme of this year’s event was communication and city, village, county and township officials attended a variety of [...]

The U.S. House of Representatives is set to consider legislation to extend the debt limit for three months this week, but has plans to condition a long term increase on the Senate passing a budget by the April 15th statutory deadline. Now that the inaugural activities are over in Washington [...]

The National Legaue of Cities has recently announced their support of national gun law changes, such as regiastration requirements and bans on assault weapons. Attached is a letter that was sent to Vice President Biden which outlines the position of the NLC, which mirrors many proposals by the President. Summer [...]

Have you ever served on an NLC committee? Have you ever thought about serving? Well, now is the time to take action! NLC is accepting applications for their 2013 Full Policy and Advocacy Committees. Those who were committee members in 2012 will automatically be reappointed unless they notify NLC they [...]

With Congress and the President passing legislation to avoid the fiscal cliff, cities had a significant victory in that they did not eliminate the tax exemption on federal municipal bonds. While this is great news for cities and villages, we still need to be vigilant as we head into the [...]

A new resource for understanding the new federal transportation program, MAP – 21 is now available from Transportation 4 America here. This is aimed at helping those who will be wokring with or under the programs, better navigate his new comprehensive law. Summer Minnick is the Director of Policy Initiatives [...]