Senator Moss’ statement is as follows:
This is a very big day for your local community and for those of us who served in local government who have long championed fixing revenue sharing here in the state of Michigan. This is a very nice bookend moment for me to speak on these bills in my last year in the Legislature. On my first campaign for the State House in 2014, my campaign literature listed as my top priority, “Restoring state funding to local communities to maintain safe neighborhoods and fix local roads.” And pretty much every budget over the next decade, I’ve been harping on this need for this Legislature to provide predictable and consistent formula funding for revenue sharing to municipalities. This is a speech that some of you have heard 12 times.
Of course, we know what revenue sharing is. It’s the money that our residents pay in taxes to Lansing, and there is an expectation it is going to be returned to your local government to fund essential services back home. When we budgeted at the local level—when I served on the city council—we put those dollars into public safety and infrastructure. But for too many years, Lansing has balanced its books on the backs of local communities by slashing revenue sharing to plug other holes in the state budget.
There was a bar chart over the last several years that the Michigan Municipal League passed around and it showed how all 50 states funded their local communities over a period of ten years. Some funded their communities a lot, some funded them a little, but all the way at the tail end of that bar chart was Michigan, the only state under the axis because we were the only state that defunded, disinvested in our communities.
Over the period of time from 2001 to 2025, sales tax collected in Michigan went up 68 percent but over that same period of time, local government funding from the state decreased 31 percent. That’s the problem. We scratch our heads and wonder why Michigan is unique in the country in dealing with emergency managers and bankrupt cities, because communities depend on our state to be a partner. When the state is a villain, these communities often find themselves doing more with less, and at some point, they just can’t keep up.
For years, I’ve worked with the Michigan Municipal League, the Michigan Townships Association, and the Michigan Association of Counties to finally give our local communities a voice here during state budgeting, and finally—finally—we have before us legislation to lock the revenue sharing formula into state law so that our cities, villages, townships, and counties can have a stream of funding from the state that they can depend on.
This is a lifeline to maintain healthy communities back home. Your mayors, supervisors, and neighbors are going to thank you for this. I feel like I can leave here knowing promises made, promises kept.
The following bill was read a third time:
Senate Bill No. 561, entitled
A bill to amend 1933 PA 167, entitled “General sales tax act,” by amending section 25 (MCL 205.75), as amended by 2025 PA 17.
The question being on the passage of the bill,
The bill was passed, a majority of the members serving voting therefor, as follows: