Inside 208

The Obama administration announced a settlement with the nations’ largest banks – Bank of America, Chase, Citigroup, GMAC/Ally, and Wells Fargo. This settlement culminates a year of effort on the part of the 50-state Attorney’s General lawsuit against mortgage loan servicers accused of wrongful foreclosures. As announced by Attorney General...

Its time to call your congressional representative and tell them to vote NO on H.R. 7. The legislation, approved by the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, would cost Michigan $217 million in funding over the next five years! Aside from losing precious funds to rebuild our roads and bridges, the...

LANSING, Michigan – Governor Snyder unveiled his 2013 budget proposal this morning in front of a Joint Appropriations Hearing with Senate and House Committee members. Included in Snyder’s budget proposal is total funding of nearly $3.4 billion for transportation which is an increase of 4.4 percent from the previous year. The...

– View a Michigan Municipal League press release about today’s budget proposal– View a joint press release from the League and ArtServe related to the budget planLANSING, Michigan – This morning (Feb. 9, 2012), the Governor proposed his 2013 budget. As part of his presentation to a Joint Panel of...

The Planning & Zoning Center at Michigan State University (PZC), in partnership with Scenic Michigan, have developed the new Michigan Sign Guidebook: Local Planning & Regulation of Signs. The Guidebook is available for purchase for $35 on the Scenic Michigan website, www.scenicmichigan.org. Much has changed since the last sign guidebook was...

This morning the Michigan House Energy & Technology Committee heard testimony on HB 5342, a bill that would allow Michigan State Police (MSP) communications towers to be used for public and private broadband expansion. Currently the MSP towers are only available for public safety communications. This legislation would expand that...

This morning Michigan Governor Rick Snyder was presented with HBs 4920-4924, bills that would give municipal attorneys the authority to prosecute “super drunk” driving offenses. The bills passed the Michigan Senate unanimously last week. In October 2009 the new “super drunk” driving laws became effective. The law raises the penalty...

The one victory for local Michigan governments coming out of the U.S. House transportation authorization legislation is that an effort to increase truck weights has been defeated, for now. As introduced, the U.S. House bill contained language that would have allowed for increased truck sizes and weights.  But, during committee deliberation, an...

Both the  U.S. House and Senate are moving forward with legislation that would put in place a new transportation funding authorization bill.  However, given the sharp contrasts in the proposals, there is still a great deal of skepticism as to whether or not a compromise can be found before the current extension...

On Thursday (Feb. 9, 2012) Michigan Governor Snyder will unveil his 2012-13 budget proposal. Are more cuts coming? What will it mean for your Michigan community’s budget? Will it be good news or bad news for your city, village or urban township? Michigan Municipal League staff and an official from...