Michigan’s Mandates Costing Its Localities Astounding $2.2B Each Year, Probably Unconstitutionally

Culminating two years of research, the Michigan Commission on Legislative Mandates recently published its 87-page final report demonstrating that Michigan’s unfunded or underfunded mandates are requiring an astounding minimum of $2.2 billion per year from localities. 

The cost to comply with Michigan state mandates – which run the gamut from electronic fingerprinting of criminals to student tests and the use of electronic voting machines in local elections, among many, many others – the primary concern (aside from cost, which so many localities in so many states face) is that Michigan’s lack of provision of funds could constitute a direct violation of the 1978 voter-approved Headlee Amendment to its state Constitution. The amendment reads, in part, “The state is prohibited from requiring any new or expanded activities by local governments without full state financing.”

Pretty clear language, right? Then how could hundreds of post-1978 requirements, enumerated in this lengthy report, have gone unfunded (or, at the very least, underfunded) by Michigan?

Some of the more pricey mandates (as found in the “Exhibits” section of the lengthy report) include a $32 million settlement for a Department of Human Services foster care-related lawsuit, $1.1 – $1.7 million for new signage required in construction zones; Native American tuition waivers at a cost of $1.87 – 2.8 million; the use of optical-scan voting machines at an $11 – $16 million price tag; and publication of notices in newspapers at the price of $3 – $6 million per year. And how about the $1.461 billion per year retirement plan for employees of public school districts?

Although highly detailed, dense, and lengthy, Michigan-ers may be well served to read this report and write their local congressional leaders for action on the constitutionality of localities as funding sources per the Headlee Amendment. 

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