Northern Michigan Counties Association Meeting Report

Board Meeting
Monday, Dec. 1
Roscommon County Municipal Building

Meeting Report
Provided by Alan Campbell
NMCA member representing Leelanau County

Beefs with State Government, Other Commissioner Concerns

Ever feel like you’re being ignored? A lack of attention from Lansing to problems facing county governments in the northern portion of the Lower Peninsula wove itself into discussions at the final Northern Michigan Counties Association meeting of the year.

Frustration was expressed during a round-table segment of the meeting that morning, and again during lunch when representatives from several counties joined Michigan Association of Counties governmental affairs specialist Jimmy Jones.

In fact, some commissioners favored carpooling to the state Capitol in a show of need for the Whitmer administration and both legislative chambers to understand the challenges facing counties that tend to be regarded as little more than vacation playgrounds rather than indispensable jurisdictions of the state.

NMCA commissioners in attendance sounded off on major topics facing their counties as the mic was passed around the table at the Roscommon County Board meeting room. Following is a synopsis of what was mentioned by county:

Saginaw County
New sentencing guidelines are threatening the security of residents, forcing judges to issue light sentences for criminals who are sometimes let right back into the streets or serve very little time. The practice leads to repeat crimes.

Other problems include providing juvenile justice—“We don’t have the money to do what the state wants us to do”—and the growing cost of running an animal shelter. “On any given day we’re expected to deal with 10–20 dogs.”

(Leelanau will soon be facing a similar problem as Cherryland Humane Society has given our county notice that sometime in the future it will not be accepting dogs picked up by the Leelanau County Sheriff’s Office.)

Iosco County
The Michigan Department of Corrections has been dropping off prisoners as they are released at two hotels. Commissioners are vexed because their understanding of probation guidelines is that felons cannot live together. Through conversations with MDOC, the community is now receiving notice when former prisoners are released. The former prisoners are not from Iosco County.

Crawford County
PFAS environmental contamination is the biggest problem in a county with only one city (Grayling) that is dominated by state land and Camp Grayling. Remediation has been slow at best.

Kalkaska County
“No more state programs, please,” said the Kalkaska representative, who was bemoaning unfunded mandates that come from Lansing. He expects state funding to counties to diminish in the future—revenue sharing did not increase in the 2026 budget despite inflation—and he’s concerned that the Ax My Tax citizen-led petition will be approved by voters. That could hurt the people with the greatest need.

I note two thoughts that struck home with me:
“We have to come up with a way to fund programs if we don’t have property taxes. I don’t trust the Legislature to do that …”
“I can’t think of anything that’s more important than taking care of people who can’t take care of themselves.”

Antrim County
High expectations from citizens expecting near-immediate road improvements may need tempering. The road work is anticipated to be paid through a state budget that increases funding to county road commissions by 35.5%. The Antrim commissioner does not expect funding to arrive until the end of the current fiscal year—which would be September 2026. It won’t be available for the bulk of the construction season.

Ogemaw County
Finances are looking much better in Ogemaw after the county received $1.5 million through the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, which helped the revenue side. On the expense side, the funding drain that resulted from operating a new jail built through a voter-passed bond issue has been stopped. Expenses to keep the jail running could not be justified given the low number of prisoners, which resulted in cuts in other county programs.

Now Ogemaw rents jail space mostly from Roscommon County and operates the former new jail building as a lockup for short-term stays and as part of the Sheriff’s Office.

Emmett County
The main issue of late in the county that’s home to Petoskey has been transportation, which has been a major drain on the county budget. Emmett tried to fund its own bus system but could not. It currently funds bus routes within the southern part of the county, where 85% of the population lives, but people who live in the northern portion have no public transportation available.

Emmett contracts with Straits Area Regional Ride, which is operated by Cheboygan and Presque Isle counties, for limited runs. Interestingly, Emmett looked at offering Uber reimbursement but did not find enough drivers, and putting in the limited routes forced two private taxi services out of business, a commissioner stated.

Leelanau County
I reported on union negotiations and their results in compensation for employees, our taking up the issue of elected officials’ salaries, the many efforts and organizations involved in the field of affordable housing (surprisingly, this topic was not mentioned by others), and the expected cost to upgrade our 911 program for encryption.

Report on Homelessness
Our guest speaker was Nick Cook, director of public policy for the Michigan Coalition Against Homelessness. He painted a dim picture for the future of the homelessness challenge for the rural counties of northern Michigan.

Mr. Cook started by reviewing statistics that are being felt across the state. For instance:
• Rent has increased 25% since COVID.
• Senior homelessness is up 3%, mostly in northern Michigan.
• The wage required to afford a two-bedroom home is $24 per hour. (Of course, Leelanau is the unfortunate exception because our home prices are so much higher than elsewhere.)

He warned that an impending end to housing support for people with mental health disabilities will directly affect rural communities. Permanent support will continue to be offered to those with developmental health disabilities.

“The rural counties will really see this. You’re going to see homelessness at your doorsteps this summer,” he said.

He anticipates a $56 million shortfall in subsidized housing. Non-monetary changes that he supports include the elimination of eviction records and other moves to “decriminalize homelessness.”