Mayor credited in stopping further cuts
By Ian Perrotta
Review Staffwriter
The rest of Michigan owes Hamtramck Mayor Karen Majewski a big thanks.
A few weeks ago, the state’s House General Government Committee passed a budget with a 3.1 percent cut to statutory revenue sharing. But last week, during a meeting of the House Appropriations Committee, the mayor’s testimony helped convince the committee to reject the proposed bill.
Even better, after her impassioned speech, as well as input from Andy Schor, Assistant Director of the Michigan Municipal League’s (MML) State Affairs division, the Appropriations Committee voted to return the level of statutory revenue sharing to its current amount. Moreover, they voted to increase revenue sharing by 1 percent.
Though nothing is certain, it looks like the measure will pass.
According to Summer Minnick, director of the MML’s State Affairs division, Majewski’s speech was instrumental in convincing the committee that communities have already suffered enough through previous cuts to revenue sharing.
“We believe having Mayor Majewski testify, in particular, went a long way in convincing the committee that our communities have already suffered enough,” she wrote on the MML’s web page on March 19.
The proposed increase in funding will be paid for by closing various loopholes in the tax structure, which stands to bring in an additional $26 million from tax revenue. And though a 1 percent increase doesn’t sound like much, it’s better than nothing – or less than nothing, which would have been the case had the original budget not been struck down, Majewski said.
“Any kind of money helps the city,” says Majewski. “The thing is, we’re losing money from so many sources, and the legislation is trying to reduce funding even more, so this is just another source of funding that would have been reduced. We’re just trying to stop the bleeding.”
5 Responses to Mayor credited in stopping further cuts
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Roger
March 29, 2010 at 1:29 pm
i’m confused, where is the $26 million coming from? the state or the city tax payers? if its the city thats like an extra $1000 from each man woman and child in Hamtramck.
Matt Bach
March 30, 2010 at 8:06 am
Roger, thanks for your comment. The money that goes to communities from revenue sharing won’t have a negative financial impact on the people in the Hamtramck community or in any community that receives revenue sharing. This revenue sharing money comes from state sales tax collections and these dollars are supposed to go back to local communities. But instead of sharing that revenue, the state has been diverting this money to fund other budget holes. Your Hamtramck mayor as well as the Michigan Municipal League are simply trying to get the state dollars promised to Michigan communities.”
Matt Bach
Director of Communications
Michigan Municipal League
email: mbach@mml.org
Roger
March 31, 2010 at 1:58 pm
OH, i see 🙂
I cant thank you enough for replying on this issue sir, its good to see someone taking the initiative to help citizens on issues like this, you are a credit to the community.
admittedly with a $18 million city budget, $26 million would help a LOT, although there’s a consensus of citizens that feel that such a windfall would have to be scrutinized closely to keep a few greedy hands out of it. We dont need any more checks written in error to companies or groups that either dont do anything or are simply connected to the council.
hamreview
March 31, 2010 at 3:46 pm
Er, roger, I don’t think Hamtramck is getting $26 million extra. That looks like the total set aside for all communities to share.
editor
Roger
April 1, 2010 at 3:09 pm
AW Poo. 🙁
well $26,000,000 divided by 90 counties, divided by 20 cities= $14,000 dollars, enough to pay for another camera on JC! woohoo