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UNCOVERING AND REFORMING MICHIGAN’S SPRAWL SUBSIDIES Michigan Land Use Institute SMART GROWTH WORKS MICHIGAN LAND USE INSTITUTE • SPECIAL REPORT • JANUARY 2005 JANUARY 2005 • Follow the Money • Michigan Land Use Institute Sponsored by United Cerebral Palsy of Michigan FollowTHE Money Citizens pay heavy price for state’s sprawl subsidies THE MICHIGAN LAND USE INSTITUTE AND UNITED CEREBRAL PALSY OF MICHIGAN BEGAN this project believing that state spending was the most important cause of Michigan’s sprawling patterns of development and its many ugly side effects — urban decay, environmental degradation, poor public transportation services, and increased hardships for people in general and those with disabilities in particular. Our findings, the culmination of a peculiar sort of fiscal archaeology, confirm that conviction. Sifting through dozens of local and state spending accounts, we found that a significant portion of the billion the state spends each year in taxpayer-supported economic development programs — a system of grants, sub- sidies, tax abatements and incentives, loans, bonds, and direct outlays — is giving Michigan one of the nation’s worst cases of sprawl. Follow The Money documents a perva- housing, jobs, the arts, and the civic county region’s residents live. sive pattern of public investments for spirit of Michigan’s second largest city. Meanwhile, the 2.4 million people in roads, jobs, government offices, and • Daimler Chrysler and two Detroit and its inner suburbs cope with business development that encourages Japanese partners are building two substandard streets and public trans- runaway sprawl. In almost every cate- new engine plants, worth $700 mil- portation that limit their mobility and gory of state economic development lion and employing 600 people, in a job prospects. Richard Bernstein, a spending, cities and older suburbs lose 245-acre field in rural Monroe Wayne State University trustee who and new suburbs win. And while it is County. Michigan kicked in $53.65 has been blind from birth, says: “If the residents of older cities and sub- million in business tax credits and you can’t drive, and you can’t afford urbs who must dig deep into their own property tax abatements, plus job someone to drive for you, you don’t pockets to keep their communities training, community development, have a life here.” afloat as needed state money flows and road construction grants. Follow The Money informs citi- elsewhere, every Michigan citizen ulti- Governor Jennifer Granholm herald- zens about how public investments mately pays. ed the plants as “great news” at a time accelerate sprawl and provides state • Once-rural Garfield Township, in of severe manufacturing sector job lawmakers with a new way to look at northern Michigan’s Grand Traverse losses. Michigan did try to promote pro-suburban spending decisions: County, received more than $20 million some urban sites, but the companies They exacerbate state and local budget in state and federal support to execute a were not interested. At $90,000 per deficits, harm Michigan’s overall eco- business development strategy that job, state spending is better directed nomic competitiveness, and make encouraged sprawl. This has triggered to small businesses and suppliers communities less, not more, support- an expensive traffic congestion problem ready to locate in cities. ive of people in general and people and forced the township to double its • The Southeast Michigan Council with disabilities in particular. sewer rates to keep up with growth. of Governments directs more than Myron Orfield, a researcher and Residents of Grand Rapids, in contrast, $600 million annually to the Detroit former Minnesota state senator, con- used only modest amounts of state sup- region for transportation, much of it to cluded last year in a report for the Mott port for its $2 billion redevelopment modernize and maintain roads in the Foundation that nearly two-thirds of program, which has revived business, outer suburbs, where half of the seven- southeast Michigan residents live in 2 Michigan Land Use Institute • Follow the Money • JANUARY 2005 Many of the billions that the state spends each year in economic development programs are giving Michigan one of the nation’s worst Above: Northern Michigan’s Garfield Township. Below: Pontiac, Michigan cases of sprawl. communities that are sliding toward a though the student population future of limited economic opportuni- increased by less than 4 percent. And ty. That future eerily resembles what state and local budget deficits continue Detroit and its older suburbs already to grow, due to the exploding cost of endure: Growing poverty in public building and maintaining public schools, weak or declining tax bases, infrastructure and services across a inadequate roads and sewers, and spread-out domain. stagnant household incomes. The During her 2002 gubernatorial same patterns, said Mr. Orfield, are campaign, Jennifer Granholm called also occurring around Grand Rapids, for ending subsidies that cause sprawl. Lansing, Flint, Kalamazoo, Saginaw, After her election Governor Granholm and Traverse City. said she would strengthen cities. The state’s failure to use public Follow The Money is a valuable tool for dollars to encourage smarter econom- helping her accomplish both goals. ic development hurts every Michigan This report documents a profoundly resident. Traffic congestion is misguided investment strategy that increasing, even though Michigan is harms Michigan’s quality of life by among the nation’s slowest-growing subsidizing sprawl. Only when that states. Water pollution from sewage strategy improves will Michigan be treatment plants, overwhelmed by able to conserve its natural resources, sprawl’s heavy stormwater runoff, produce more job opportunities, enjoy threatens public health in dozens of great cities, and restore our rapidly cities. Michigan residents spend 20 diminishing sense of community — percent more for school construction bedrock necessities for competing suc- than they did 10 years ago, even cessfully in the 21st century. I icant barriers to basic mobility for many people with dis- Sprawl Disables Everyone abilities. Worse, sprawl’s rush to the suburbs is decaying the urban core, often the only place people with disabilities can find affordable housing. This raises significant safety issues Four years ago, United Cerebral Palsy of for people with certain kinds of disabilities. It raises sizeable Michigan and the Michigan Land Use employment issues, too, as jobs move to the suburbs, where Institute began collaborating on a transporta- they are out of reach of people who cannot drive and lack tion project funded by the Michigan access to good public transit. Developmental Disabilities Council. We The sheer cost of sprawl is also crucial to the disabili- teamed up because UCP and the Institute ty community. Soaring infrastructure costs draw critical strongly support greatly improved public transportation, a dollars from programs like transit and accessible housing critical need for people with disabilities who don’t drive. that help people with disabilities live more independently. But we now realize that our commonality is even greater: We need communities that are compact and equipped with Land use policy itself is a disability issue. readily accessible sidewalks, public transportation, and Sprawling communities, automobile dependence, a affordable housing. A community that works well for peo- lack of curb cuts on sidewalks, and strip mall stores sepa- ple with disabilities works extraordinarily well for every- rated from bus stops by oceans of parking: All form signif- one. It is a goal we must all share and work towards. JANUARY 2005 • Follow the Money • Michigan Land Use Institute 3 Greenfields, BrownfieldsANDRed Ink State records reveal Michigan’s heavy investment in sprawl WHEN SOMEONE TELLS YOU THAT SPRAWL IS THE FREE inward toward existing communities market at work, don’t believe it. Sprawl cannot exist without massive public builds neighborhoods instead of tear- ing them apart, conserves natural spending for roads, water, sewers, public buildings, and business devel- resources, slows the ever-outward opment. These taxpayer-financed market intrusions distort the landscape, spread of expensive infrastructure, and boosts use of existing bus systems. ruin central cities, harm the environment, and reduce the quality of life. The need for this change in Michigan is urgent. The tide of red ink Young people, the poor, the elderly, Economic Development Fund in 1987 inundating government in Michigan is and people with disabilities bear the to invest in highways, roads, streets, due in large part to the costs associat- brunt of spread-out growth patterns, and other infrastructure that support ed with how we grow. Adding just one largely because they can’t drive and new jobs. Of the $382 million spent lane to a divided highway can cost $20 public transit in most regions is dis- since 1988, 78 percent, or $297 mil- million a mile. Maintaining that high- mal. These patterns make it difficult lion, went to new suburbs and rural way costs thousands of dollars annual- for already poorly funded bus systems areas; just 22 percent, or $85 million, ly. Continuing to grow outward and to offer the kind of convenient and went to core cities. laying down evermore miles of expen- effective service common in well The big winner was Auburn Hills, sive roads and sewers — and further designed cities. Everyone suffers as an upscale suburban Oakland County

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