Snyder Shares Plan For Consolidating Government
GRAND RAPIDS (WWJ/AP) - In Grand Rapids, Monday, Governor Rick Snyder detailed a plan aimed at encouraging regional cooperation and shared services between local governments. Among other things, Snyder said he wants to see more service sharing among local governments.
"Local officials deserve credit for continually finding ways to make effective use of their limited resources,'' Snyder said in a speech aimed at the Legislature.
"However, antiquated laws often discourage them from taking broader steps such as consolidating or sharing services with neighboring communities. It is time that we view both challenges and solutions in a regional context rather than confining them to township, city and county borders,'' he said.
WWJ's Ron Dewey spoke with Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson who said the plan may help local cities see the light on the virtues of consolidation.
"We've spent well over $100,000 doing feasibility studies about taking a smaller town like Rochester, surrounded by Rochester Hills, or Clarkston surrounded by Independence Township, and showing them the cost-benefit analysis for merging," Patterson said.
"And, we're been turned down uniformly. We've done this seven or eight times," he said.
Patterson thinks economic reality will eventually bring about some mergers, and, at the very least the sharing and consolidation of services.
Snyder also wants to establish an incentive program that would replace part of Michigan's tax revenue sharing program that supports local governments. Communities that meet "best practices'' standards would be eligible for incentives.
Examples of best practices would include placing all new hires in a defined contribution plan or a hybrid retirement plan that caps annual employer contributions at 10 percent of base salary. If health care is offered, new hires would have to pay 20 percent of their health insurance premiums.
Snyder's plan calls for speeding up the collective bargaining process in cases where services or management are being merged between local units of government.
Snyder called for changing binding arbitration practices for public safety workers so that a community's ability to pay is a fundamental factor in an arbitrator's decision.
During Snyder's visit, about 100 protesters gathered outside to show their opposition to his policies.
