Morgan McKimmy
Research Mentor: Debra Horner
Mentor Department: Center for Local, State, and Urban Policy, Public Policy
Author(s): Morgan McKimmy, Debra Horner, Margret Walthall
Session: Session 4 (1:00 PM – 1:50 PM)
Presentation Type: Poster 74
Abstract
This project will investigate how local government leaders’ assessments of their local economies relate to their government’s fiscal health. Although state, national, and even global economic conditions undoubtedly impact local governments, how these resonate in the local economy and, in turn, influence fiscal stress is a largely unexplored topic. The data used in this project comes from the Michigan Public Policy Survey (MPPS), a long-term local government survey conducted by the University of Michigan’s Center for Local, State, and Urban Policy (CLOSUP). The survey collects responses from the top appointed and elected officials in each Michigan jurisdiction every spring and sometimes in a second wave in the fall. Michigan has 1,856 general-purpose local governments (counties, cities, villages, and townships), and among those the MPPS regularly receives responses from over 70% statewide. The survey provides valuable insights on how local governments perceive local issues including economic conditions and financial well-being. This project analyzes the patterns between respondents’ perceptions of the economic conditions in their communities and their local government’s own financial health over the last five years. The findings yield an interesting relationship between the two, with forecasts of poor economic conditions in a jurisdiction often correlating with poor government fiscal health. These results are significant to Michigan politicians and policymakers as it provides a clearer picture of how local governments and economies are intertwined and suggest how interventions to support struggling local governments might be targeted. Further, these results can extend beyond Michigan to advise the decisions of policymakers across the country, opening a window for further exploration of this relationship in other regional contexts.
