Comments on: County Board Wrangles Over Budget Process

By: Steve Bean

Steve Bean — Mon, 13 May 2013 16:38:22 +0000

@3: Okay, now that I’ve actually read the article (always a good idea) I see that commissioners addressed the township and state funding options.

By: Steve Bean

Steve Bean — Mon, 13 May 2013 15:54:34 +0000

@2: So is the alternative for the CRC to direct resources to roads within those jurisdictions that are paying a portion? Can the county board directly influence such decisions? It seems like there’s at least an opportunity for the board, city/village councils, and county citizens to indirectly influence them. Your description of the situation might help them clearly make the case for appropriate allocations.

By: John Q.

John Q. — Sun, 12 May 2013 23:33:23 +0000

One of the aspects of the underfunding of the transportation network is the degree to which townships fail to contribute towards the upkeep of roads. Townships argue that since they don’t receive any Act 51 funds, they shouldn’t be required to contribute any additional funding. But Act 51 doesn’t cover the cost of funding roads in any community. At the County level, the road commission goes without. In the cities and villages, most levy road millages to make up the gap that exists between the need and what is provided through Act 51 funding. Townships should be asked to do the same.

Some townships allocate funds towards roads but there should be a contribution from the townships consistent with what cities and villages do through their local road millages. A countywide millage would probably be most unpopular in the townships but it actually would be the cities and villages that already have voted millages who could argue that it would result in double taxation.

By: Vivienne Armentrout

Vivienne Armentrout — Sun, 12 May 2013 21:15:09 +0000

The road question is indeed vexing. It may be that the pre-Headlee law is the most direct way to ameliorate county road conditions. But I'm guessing that it could cause a political firestorm. I've been following the state transportation budget discussions with interest and have discussed some of the issues in my post [link] which also has some helpful links to explanatory documents. If Governor Snyder's transportation package goes through (which appears to be extremely unlikely), money would actually be withdrawn from local roads and applied toward "commercial corridors". Perhaps North Territorial would be one.