MACKINAC ISLAND – The governor’s traditional Detroit office will be converted to part of an urban issues office, Governor Rick Snyder said Friday, while the mayors of the state’s two largest cities said the state needs to make it easier for cities to work with their neighbors on services and programs.

The comments came from the final day of the Detroit Regional Chamber’s Mackinac Island conference, as Snyder made his address to the conference and then joined with Detroit Mayor Dave Bing and Grand Rapids Mayor George Heartwell to discuss the importance of urban renewal.

Traditionally, the governor has an office staffed by an official in Detroit and in the Upper Peninsula. Snyder has not named his Detroit liaison yet, and he was asked when he would do so.

Snyder said he is recruiting for that post, but that he would revamp the Detroit office to be part of an urban issues office.

Additional offices would be created in Grand Rapids and Saginaw as well, Snyder said, as the administration put a greater focus on revitalizing the state’s urban centers.

Snyder and Bing said they have weekly conversations to discuss ongoing issues. Those discussions, Bing said, have been very open and honest.

Both mayors said the changes and cuts the administration made to revenue sharing as part of the 2011-12 budget were difficult to their cities.

With Detroit’s budget in nearly desperate circumstances, cutting back on funds is difficult.

In fact, at another session at the conference, other leaders from the Detroit region made it clear how important Detroit’s financial health was to them. Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson said Wall Street rating agencies have told him that if Detroit has to have an emergency manager or goes into receivership, his county’s AAA rating will be ended. That could cost Oakland County taxpayers millions of dollars more in interest costs.

After that meeting, Patterson said he returned to Michigan and called Bing to tell him, “I’m your new best friend.”

Another concern the mayors said was the administration’s dropping the brownfield and historic preservation credits as part of his tax changes. Instead the state will allocate funds directly for brownfield and historic preservation efforts.

Heartwell said the brownfield and historic preservation credits had been the linchpin of the city’s redevelopment efforts. He was hopeful the changes the administration had made would be helpful and he acknowledged that changes made in recent years by the Legislature to expand which communities could apply for the grants had made the program somewhat less effective.

Bing said the credits had made a number of downtown development projects possible, and the city will simply have to rethink how it deals with those kind of developments.

The two mayors also said both their cities are struggling with large numbers of unemployed and undertrained persons who need help. Bing said some way has to be found to help these individuals get retrained.

And despite Grand Rapids’ success in attracting individuals and businesses to its area, Heartwell said 87 percent of the students attending Grand Rapids schools are poor.

But in terms of practical issues, Bing and Heartwell both said ways had to be found so their cities could work together with their neighbors more easily on providing services.

For example, Heartwell said Grand Rapids has been trying to consolidate fire fighting services with neighboring communities like Kentwood, but there are legal impediments to allowing that to occur.

This story was provided by Gongwer News Service. To subscribe, click on Gongwer.Com

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