Wayland City Manager Tim McLean last week attended a program on revenue sharing, sponsored by the Michigan Municipal League, and confirmed that Wayland and other cities have lost a lot in revenue sharing over the last 14 years.

City Councilman Rick Mathis last year told his colleagues that Wayland has missed out on nearly $1.5 million in state aid during that period.

McLean attended a presentation Thursday by Anthony Minghine of the Michigan Municipal League.

Noting the shortfall of nearly $1.5 million, he said, “Over a period of 14 years that may not seem like a significant amount. However, when you consider that the state is still in recovery mode relative to property values (In Oakland County, for example, it is projected that 2008 property values won’t be restored until the mid to late 2020s), and the fact that the Headlee Amendment restricts revenue that may be collected by municipalities, that $1.5 million in my mind is a significant sum.”

McLean said this revenue loss adversely affects the most essential services a municipality provides — infrastructure maintenance and public safety, including road projects, public works and police/fire equipment.

“Prior to the Recession (I won’t say ‘great’ because there was nothing great about it), the mantra of local government was always ‘doing more with less,’” the city manager said. “Post-recession it seems to be more a case of ‘doing less with less”’ for all municipalities.

“If there has ever been a time when local government has operated leaner than today, I would challenge anyone to provide data for this. The state is quick to talk of how they have balanced their budget and how ‘in order’ their own house is. I maintain (and I would venture to guess many of my colleagues would agree) that this was done on the backs of local governments.”

He said municipalities since 2008 across the state have had to slash budgets, drastically downsize their workforce, and cut services to the point of being unsustainable in the long term as a result of recession, lack of revenue sharing and Headlee.

“I would also maintain that the pain that was felt at the local level was not felt at the state level,” McLean added. “For example, in 2010 when I was an intern with the City of Troy, the administration was forced to reduce the work force by roughly one-third. If you ask me if the state has made the hard decisions regarding budgets and staffing that has been made at the local level, my answer is a big NO.”

The MML is bringing this to the attention of the State Legislature, but McLean said it has been difficult because of term limits.

“Those currently in office don’t have the historical context of when these problems began,” the city manager said. “This really was something that wasn’t on the collective radar of Lansing until very recently. Unfortunately there isn’t a quick or easy solution to this problem.

“I think getting Lansing to start investing in communities (on a nationwide scale, Michigan ranks last) would be a good start. I also feel like its time to reform Headlee.

“I am hopeful that the State Legislature will partner with municipalities in finding a solution rather than pontificating. If the state is truly serious about ‘reinventing’ Michigan, it must starting investing in communities.”

Mathis, in a council meeting last year, reported that 14 cities have banded together to file a lawsuit against the state, demanding the money they believe they’ve been shortchanged be returned.

Detroit Free Press reporter Christina Hall said local governments throughout Michigan have been having to slash programs and make serious budget cuts because of decreasing state fund support.

The 14 cities’ complaint asserts that “the state is violating the Michigan Constitution by overstating spending that is paid to local governments and engaging in an ‘illegal tax shift’” the Free Press reported. “The complaint states that Michigan is including payments from Proposal A revenue and payments to charter schools, county road commissions and others from the trunk line roads fund and payments to cover the costs of state mandates in its calculations of spending in the form of aid that is paid to local governments.

The Free Press reported, “Many Michigan communities have said they were brought to their knees financially by a combination of events, including the Great Recession, the mortgage market meltdown that dramatically cut real estate values, the state’s elimination of the personal property tax on businesses and continued cuts in state revenue sharing. Working their way back has been difficult because of the limits on property tax growth imposed by Proposal A and the Headlee Amendment.”

McLean concluded, “It’s a complex issue without an easy solution. I believe that as municipalities we will continue to operate as lean as possible. I hope that our representatives in Lansing will spend less time in Lansing and more time working with us to identify solutions. I believe that if Lansing continues with the status quo, more municipalities will not be able to sustain service levels.”

PHOTOS: City Manager Tim McLean

City Councilman Rick Mathis