On December 6, 2011, Senate Bill 8, a bill that would create the "Municipal Partnership Act" was submitted to Governor Snyder for signature.   This act is tie-barred to Senate Bill 9 and 10 and would allow two or more local governments or one or more local governments and a public agency to enter into a contract with each other to form a joint endeavor to perform or exercise any function, service, power, or privilege that the local government or public agency could exercise separately.

The new joint endeavor could use tax revenue that was previously dedicated to pay for the exercise or performance of any function, service, power, or privilege by that local government or public agency individually, to fund the exercise or performance of that function, service, power, or privilege by the joint endeavor.  Moreover, the joint endeavor could levy a tax up to five mills on all taxable property in the areas it served for the purposes of providing revenue to the joint endeavor, but only if approved by a majority of electors served by the endeavor.

The Municipal Partnership Act also makes various topics prohibited subjects of bargaining between a local government or public agency and the bargaining representative of its employees.  Specifically, the following would be prohibited subjects of bargaining under the Act:

• Whether the local government would enter into a contract for a joint endeavor under the proposed Act for or in connection with one or more functions or services;
• The procedures for obtaining the contract for a joint endeavor;
• The identities of the other parties to the contract;
• The contents or language of the contract; and
• The impact of the contract on individual employees or the bargaining unit.

To learn more about the Municipal Partnership Act please contact Andria Ditschman at (517) 886-7139 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or Mark Koerner at (517) 886-7109 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .