The Detroit News. September 2, 2020
Governor, don’t keep parents in the dark about COVID-19
Parents will be making difficult decisions over the next few days - and likely throughout the upcoming school year - about how their children will be educated.
The more data they have to work with about the status of the COVID-19 pandemic in Michigan the more informed they’ll be in making those choices.
That’s why this newspaper joined the Michigan Press Association and publications across the state in asking Gov. Gretchen Whitmer to “to compile and publicly release, on a consistent ongoing basis, vital public information regarding school related COVID outbreaks.”
Transparency is a primary obligation of elected officials. Keeping the people fully informed about the things that are impacting their lives on a timely basis is a core duty of any public office.
And yet the Michigan Department of Health and Human Resources and local health departments are withholding details on the location and severity of COVID-19 outbreaks in schools.
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The Mining Journal. September 1, 2020
“Dark stores” impact communities
By now, many people have at least heard of the “dark store” theory. The practice - which entails “big box” stores using the Michigan Tax Tribunal to lower their property taxes by 50% or more in some cases - has been going on for more than a decade.
For example, Marquette Township alone has noted nearly $3 million in tax revenue reduction related to the dark store issue, according to a recent Journal article by Lisa Bowers.
This has a ripple effect on other entities, as Marquette Township disperses some of its tax revenue to other governmental entities, such as Marquette County, MARQ-Tran and the Marquette Area Public Schools, to name a few.
Education has been especially hard hit by the “dark store theory”.
The Marquette Area Public Schools’ operating fund has been reduced by nearly $1.2 million in cumulative budget reductions or refunds due to this issue, the article stated.
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Traverse City Record-Eagle. September 4, 2020
State’s response to calls for transparency about COVID in schools falls short
Better late than never seems to be the best state health officials can do when it comes to providing basic information to Michiganders about COVID-19 outbreaks in schools.
Unfortunately, their late arrival means hundreds of thousands of Michigan families will make decisions about returning to school without the benefit of the one piece of information common sense tells us would be important to their considerations.
What schools have experienced infections, how many students and teachers contracted the disease, and whether the spread is ongoing seem like basic bits health officials could disseminate widely to help parents make informed decisions about their children’s safety this fall.
Yet, somehow health leaders who have spent the past six months shaping our statewide reaction to the pandemic were both unwilling and incapable of disseminating such important information.
It has been half a month since Bridge Magazine first reported state officials’ acknowledgment of 14 COVID-19 outbreaks in Michigan K-12 schools, colleges and universities. From the outset, Michigan Department of Health and Human Services leaders refused to disclose even basic location information related to the outbreaks - not even the county where the school outbreaks occurred.
Health officials said they planned to allow a patchwork of notifications to trickle from local health departments and school administrators to parents whose children are exposed. They wouldn’t require widespread notification, because such disclosures could spread “stigma.”
Concerns over stigmatization are real, but worries about unequal treatment seem moot at a moment when it’s unlikely any Michigan school will escape the coming year without at least one exposure.
In fact, it was only because of the forward-thinking, transparent actions of Kingsley Public Schools Superintendent Keith Smith our community learned of the district’s first brush with COVID-19 last week when a high school student tested positive for the infection. The district’s announcement of the exposure and the actions it took to address the issue were important facts for parents, teachers and others in the community who need to make informed decisions.
Since the state first revealed its less-than-transparent plan for handling information about infections in schools, leaders of nearly 30 Michigan news organizations, including the Record-Eagle signed onto a letter asking Gov. Gretchen Whitmer to take immediate action to release information about COVID-19 outbreaks in the state’s educational institutions. And earlier this week the governor and the state’s top health officials committed to launching a public portal by Sept. 14 that will catalog outbreaks in schools.
The state’s decision to release the information is an important step, and an acknowledgment that leaders who are grappling with statewide pandemic response are attempting to meet the needs of residents.
But we will reserve applause until we see the once-weekly updates as they come to fruition.
Such treatment of transparency - as an afterthought, not a priority - is a frustrating theme we’ve become accustomed to when dealing with our state government, both during and prior to the pandemic.
Only at this moment, the ramifications of government murkiness carry with them the ramifications of a pandemic disease our nation has struggled to address.
The Marquette Township operating fund has seen about $313,000 disappear over the last 11 years, and the Marquette County operating fund has been reduced by nearly $338,000, according to Marquette Township Assessor Dulcee Atherton’s calculations.
Marquette Township is not alone, as according to a Michigan State University study, tax revenue reductions in at least 72% of Michigan’s counties have occurred under the “dark store” method.
This leaves municipal officials frustrated, while local tax assessors are bound by applicable state in their valuations of all properties.
In fact, five bills have been introduced at the state level with the intent of closing the dark store loophole, but each of them has stalled.
And the onslaught keeps building.
State legislators from both parties are publicly opposing Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s recent reappointment of Victoria Enyart to a four-year term to the Michigan Tax Tribunal.
These legislators include Sen. Ed McBroom, R-Waucedah Township and Rep. Sara Cambensy, D-Marquette.
It was Enyart who reduced the taxable value for the Lowes Home Center along U.S. 41 from $60 per square foot to $25 per square foot in 2012. That resulted in local taxing entities paying the big box giant $500,000 for 2010, 2011, and 2012.
The end result is less money for education, emergency services, municipal operations, transportation, roads, veterans, libraries and more.
Perhaps assessing law needs to be changed. It seems clear, at least to municipal leaders, that the law needs to be applied more fairly.
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