Spending money to make money

Its an old advertising and investment adage... if you want to make some money, you have to spend it. The worst thing a failing business can do is cut back on their advertising budget. It's the same with how public dollars are spent. First find out what's going to give you your biggest bang for the buck, and then invest. Over the years, this has meant funding for infrastructure such as roads, bridges and water and sewer lines. And we all know how that's holding up now. While I'll discuss that in later posts, today I want to talk about the need to invest in our communities. Years ago, the state made a deal with communities across Michigan.... we're going to restrict your ability to raise taxes locally and in return we'll share back some portion of state taxes. This is not uncommon in other states. States don't want a hodgepodge of taxes and tax rates in their communities and so they share some portion of state revenue with them to make up for it. In Michigan, we call it "revenue sharing". Its a deal that was first put in place in the 1930's. Unfortunately for the past several years, the state has been cutting that amount to make up for other holes in the budget. Locals and their taxpayers have been shortchanged to date by some $3 billion! A good reason as to why there are less police officers and fire fighters on the street than there were on 9-11. A good reason why other quality of life services such as recreation programs, parks and libraries have been dropped or closed the last several years. Well, there's at least one group that's fighting for the state to do the right thing. The Michigan Municipal League, a statewide association that represents cities, villages and even some of the larger townships is asking the state to keep its promise and begin funding communities so they can provide the services that will maintain the high quality of life we've enjoyed in our state over the years.