Dan Gilmartin Speaks to Michigan Municipal Executive’s Summer Workshop about SaveMICity’s Successes

Now in its third year, the SaveMICity initiative is starting to see success toward our goal of reforming Michigan’s broken system for funding its communities. 

We’ve seen this success in words. We’ve seen it in legislative action. And we feel it behind the scenes. Michigan Municipal League CEO and Executive Director Dan Gilmartin talked about some of these successes during a July 23 presentation at the 2019 Michigan Municipal Executives summer workshop in Alpena. 

During the workshop, Gilmartin presented to the full room of attendees about what it means for Michigan to be ranked dead last in growth in education funding, state government accountability and transparency, and growth in community investment. He explained the goals of SaveMICity and its proposed solutions to change the way the system works. Gilmartin also discussed the strides that have already taken place, including the revenue sharing package of bills proposed, the road funding debate and SaveMICity raising about $500,000 in grants and in-kind contributions. 

Michigan’s shortfalls in municipal funding have been decades in the making, and pulling ourselves out of this hole will take time. SaveMICity is in it for the long haul to create the future Michiganders deserve. Big change will happen as a series of small advances–these small breakthroughs matters. For example, municipal finance now has a space in the conversation and lawmakers who weren’t talking about it before are talking about it now.  

Sometimes the change is clear, such as changes to assessing laws and OPEB reform and extensions. Sometimes it’s subtle, like when the state House at the start of this year renamed the House Committee on Local Government to the House Committee on Local Government and Municipal Finance. Other times, it’s the words people use, such as when Senator Majority Leader Mike Shirkey, R-Clarklake, told the Detroit News in March of 2019 that he would consider reviewing Proposal A and its impact on Michigan communities.

All along, the SaveMICity effort has been a marathon, not a sprint. Change is hard and it takes time. But it is happening. With your continued help, SaveMICity can show the public and decision makers how the local programs everyone values are funded and what steps are needed to fix the current issues caused by the state’s broken municipal finance system. Join the effort and learn more at SaveMICity.org.