state and local government

On April 15, 2026, the Ford School's Center for Local, State, and Urban Policy (CLOSUP) celebrated a quarter century of impact. Approximately 75 current and former CLOSUP directors, staff, students, collaborators, and state legislators gathered in La...

When the Michigan Independent Citizens Redistricting Commission faced a tidal wave of public input—more than 30,000 comments—the Center for Local, State, and Urban Policy (CLOSUP) and Ford School students stepped in. Their analysis helped the commiss...

The Detroit Metro Area Communities Study (DMACS) celebrates 10 years of amplifying Detroiters’ voices—over 5,000 participants have helped shape conversations, drive investments, and inspire change.

“In the state legislature, someone could write the best, most reasoned, analytical memo, and it is still possible nothing will come of it because the lawmakers don’t want to do anything that’s going to jeopardize their re-election,” reflected Frankli...

Michigan’s local officials are growing more pessimistic about their ability to maintain—let alone expand—services under the current local government funding system, according to the latest installment of the Michigan Public Policy Survey conducted by...

Stephanie Leiser, an expert in public finance and local government fiscal health, has been appointed the next director of the Center for Local, State, and Urban Policy (CLOSUP) at the University of Michigan’s Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy. H...

When Emma Renzi Wise (BA ’19) got hooked on learning about environmental policy at the Ford School, she never imagined working for the New York City Department of Sanitation. But nearly six years after leaving Ann Arbor, Wise is the community coordin...

As vice president of regional initiatives for the South Bend-Elkhart Regional Partnership, Tayrn MacFarlane (MBA/MPP ’08) unites local officials, business leaders, educational institutions, and community organizations from northern Indiana and southw...

You can’t get good government without good oversight.”

Sociologist Jessica Gillooly (PhD ’20) has used her deep knowledge of call taking and dispatching, along with some compelling new theoretical ideas, to become one of the leading experts on this issue. Her expertise is helping inform and shape the dev...

Rick Scott’s (MPA '12) journey into public service was inspired by the events of September 11, 2001. “I just remember feeling like I wanted to do something,” he recalls of his high school senior year. This feeling led him to an ROTC scholarship, wher...

The challenges facing big cities such as Detroit and Cleveland have been widely examined by experts over the decades, as each has dealt with the loss of population and major industries. Stephanie Leiser chronicled the situations in small- to medium-s...

By its very definition, democracy gives people a voice in the decisions that affect their communities, but the practice of incorporating citizen voices in government decisions can be complicated and challenging. Last semester, three students from the...

Upon graduating from the Ford School, Lishaun Francis (MPP ‘09) headed to DC to work as a Management and Program Analyst at the United States Department of Education (DoE). Although she felt she was making an impact on public education, working at th...

Each year, approximately 20 percent of Ford School master’s students explore policy at the local or state levels through their required 10-week internship, and this summer was no different. Ford School faculty and staff helped students find opportuni...

In a Bridge Michigan op-ed, Leiser and Ivacko call for COVID relief to foster greater cooperation, trust in government built at the local level.  "Across the country, nearly three quarters of U.S. adults say they have a "great deal" or a "fair am...

Findings from the most recent Michigan Public Policy Survey (MPPS), published by the Ford School’s Center for Local, State, and Urban Policy (CLOSUP), reveal broad concern by local leaders and administrators over property tax appeals. The survey ...

Nearly two-thirds of Michigan’s local leaders believe that the state’s system of funding local government is broken and in need of reform. This belief is shared by a majority of local leaders from jurisdictions large and small, from every region of t...

The Detroit Free Press Editorial Board asks, “Lansing, are you listening to Michigan cities?” The piece draws attention to the latest Michigan Public Policy Survey on the fiscal health of the state’s local governments. The University of Michigan'...

After five years of steady statewide improvement, fewer Michigan communities report that they are better able to meet their fiscal needs this year. A University of Michigan survey polled top elected and appointed officials in the state's 1,856 units ...

In 2004, the Ford School’s newly launched Center for Local, State, and Urban Policy (CLOSUP) sponsored its first internship partnership with the City of Ann Arbor administrator’s office.   “Part of the center’s mission is to help bring the resources ...

The latest Michigan Public Policy Survey (MPPS), published by the Ford School's Center for Local, State, and Urban Policy (CLOSUP), finds that local leaders are less optimistic about the state’s direction. Statewide, only 44 percent of local leaders ...

The Center for Local, State, and Urban Policy (CLOSUP) is offering a new undergraduate course for students looking for opportunities to work with survey research data.

As national concern for addressing global warming grows, more and more Americans are looking for governmental action to speed a transition to low-carbon energy sources. Most of the focus has been on federal action or—in the Trump era—reversal of prio...