Michigan Radio's "Stateside" highlights CLOSUP's latest, and troubling, fiscal health findings

August 24, 2016

Michigan Radio’s Cynthia Canty interviews Tom Ivacko (MPP ’93), CLOSUP program administrator, for the segment “Declining fiscal health “an early warning sign” for local governments, report says.”

The program focuses on CLOSUP's latest Michigan Public Policy Survey on local fiscal health.

“Since 2010, each year there’ve been more and more jurisdictions saying we’re better this year than we were last year,” says Ivacko of the ongoing survey, which started at the end of the Great Recession. “This year, that trend has reversed.”

Ivacko, who describes the findings as an “early warning sign,” cites a complex set of contributing factors, including increasing costs of goods and services, decreasing state aid, and decreasing property tax revenues.

In spite of these fiscal concerns, local communities report plans to increase spending on infrastructure maintenance and public safety. “Infrastructure needs are at their highest level since 2009,” says Ivacko.

CLOSUP is in the process of doing additional analysis on the results from the survey, and plans to release these in a more detailed September 13 report.

Additional stories on CLOSUP survey results include: