Nikayla Karda-Marok
Pronouns: she/her
Research Mentor(s): Debra Horner
Research Mentor School/College/Department: Center for Local, State, and Urban Policy / Public Policy
Program: UROPF
Session: Session 4 (1:40pm – 2:30pm)
Authors: Nikayla Karda-Marok
Abstract
Even though Michigan has had an expanding economy for several years, local government fiscal health is a continuing challenge for townships, cities, villages and counties. How much fiscal stress do local governments currently face, and what do they predict down the road? The data for this project come from a long-running program of local government surveys in Michigan, conducted by the Center for Local, State, and Urban Policy (CLOSUP). The survey began in 2009 and is ongoing through the Spring of 2023. Questionnaires are completed by Michigan local government elected and appointed officials statewide, including county, township, city, and village officials. Each annual Spring Survey assesses officials’ views on current fiscal health status as well as individual metrics such as cash flow, revenues, and debt. The Michigan Public Policy Survey (MPPS) surveys 1,856 local governments throughout Michigan with more than 1,300 jurisdictions participating each wave. For example, in 2022, the survey had a 73% response rate by unit and the margin of error for the survey’s findings as a whole is +/- 1.37%. While the 2023 survey contains a significant amount of data relating to housing, ARPA and democracy, some of the important key findings relate to economic status and debt accumulation, including current assessments of fiscal stress on each jurisdiction and predictions for five years in the future. These results, among many others that were found in the survey, are important for policymakers across the state of Michigan and beyond, as they provide new data on government officials’ views on their jurisdiction’s economic well-being. This data is also essential due to its ability to be compared with past and future data on the correlation between fiscal stress and debt accumulation.
