Center for Local, State, and Urban Policy | Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy
Departments and Research Centers

Center for Local, State, and Urban Policy

The Center for Local, State, and Urban Policy (CLOSUP) conducts, supports and fosters applied academic research to inform local, state, and urban policy issues.

Showing 151 - 180 of 653 results
News

Rabe explores taxing methane emissions

Mar 16, 2020
Representing a new line of research, Ford School professor Barry Rabe explores the politics around taxing methane gas releases. Rabe argues that consensus among economists is “the best way to reduce climate risks linked to carbon dioxide emissions...
News

Farmers harvesting the benefits of wind energy

Mar 5, 2020
With U.S. farm bankruptcy rates rising, farmers have been turning to the wind energy to make ends meet. Sarah Mills, senior project manager at the Ford School's Center for Local, State, and Urban Policy (CLOSUP) was featured in a USA Today article...

CLOSUP presents to lawmakers at Wolverine Caucus

Feb 28, 2020
Tom Ivacko and Debra Horner from CLOSUP presented findings from the Michigan Public Policy Survey at a Wolverine Caucus presentation on February 25. “Michigan is experiencing its longest–ever period of sustained economic growth, but because of a web...
News

Fiscal health: Mixed signals for Michigan’s local governments

Dec 11, 2019
ANN ARBOR—More than two-thirds of Michigan’s local government leaders rate their jurisdictions’ current fiscal stress as relatively low, according to a new survey by the University of Michigan’s Center for Local, State, and Urban Policy. On the...
State & Hill

CLOSUP’s Michigan Public Policy Survey turns 10

Nov 14, 2019
It’s been a tumultuous decade in Michigan: three governors, a cratered economy and its recovery, the largest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history, a public health disaster in Flint, and more. Through it all, the Michigan Public Policy Survey...

MPPS finds divided government means divided opinions

Aug 15, 2019
With 2019 marking the end of eight years of Republican control of both the governor’s office and state legislature, a new University of Michigan survey shows divided opinions among Michigan’s local government leaders about where the state is...
News

Ivacko makes sense of the recreational marijuana ‘haze’

Jun 18, 2019
As Michigan goes through the transition after voters said “yes” to legalizing recreational marijuana last November, there’s a bit of a “haze,” as the Ford School’s Tom Ivacko puts it, on policy in "‘Haze’ abounds as Michigan struggles to regulate...

Ivacko discusses opioid interventions on Michigan Radio

May 14, 2019
Tom Ivacko, associate director of the Center for Local, State and Urban Policy (CLOSUP), housed at the Ford School, talks about Michigan’s relationship to the opioid crisis with Michigan Radio’s Paulette Parker. Published May 13, 2019 online, with...
News

Sarah Mills work featured on This is Michigan

Apr 19, 2019
With bias and misinformation swirling around the consequences of wind turbine installation, local government officials are hard-pressed to find reliable information for themselves and their communities. Certainly there are tangible...
News

Mills weighs in on UP wind energy project

Apr 8, 2019
In Michigan's Upper Peninsula a proposal to construct 49 wind turbines across 28,000 acres of the Huron Mountains is the subject of criticism from the local communities. To get perspective in her April 4, 2019 story on Interlochen Public Radio, Kaye...

Ivacko provides context for economic hardship findings

Mar 29, 2019
Understanding poverty in Michigan is the first step towards alleviating it, so people are playing particular attention to the recent Center for Local, State, and Urban Policy (CLOSUP) report on how local officials think about economic hardship. Much...

Partisan divide felt less at local level, writes Ivacko

Jan 9, 2019
In an opinion column for Governing, Tom Ivacko (MPP ’93), associate director of CLOSUP, breaks down the latest Michigan Public Policy Survey (MPPS) findings on civil discourse in Michigan localities.“Will the National Partisan Breakdown Infect Our...

Barry Rabe expects Midwest to refocus on climate issues

Nov 14, 2018
With a change of governorships after the midterm elections, one previously passed-over issue is seeing a resurgence. Governors-elect are already showing signs of making climate issues a top-priority in Midwestern states. Daniel Cusick, reporter for...