UP Local Government Survey, Keweenaw National Historic Park Announces Commissioned Artist, UP Hotel Tax, Pretty Quiet on UP Campuses, & From the World Around Us

– INFORMED BREVITY –

This Week in RI

On Wednesday we’ll be publishing an article by Mia Brodeur, a Research Assistant at the University of Michigan Ford School of Public Policy’s Center for Local, State, and Urban Policy (CLOSUP), that explores the issue of poverty in the Upper Peninsula and how local government leaders perceive and address this challenge.

This is the first in a series from the “CLOSE UP on the UP” project, a collaboration between CLOSUP, U-M’s UP Scholars Program, and Rural Insights.

Survey of UP Local Governments by the Ford School at the University of Michigan

If you are a UP county, city, village, or township official, please consider participating in the Spring 2024 wave of the Michigan Public Policy Survey (MPPS) from the University of Michigan Ford School of Public Policy’s Center for Local, State, and Urban Policy (CLOSUP).

It’s important for the survey findings to include UP governments’ perspectives on questions about the challenges facing local communities across the state. This year’s survey is asking about public safety in your jurisdiction and law enforcement practices across the state. Please make sure your UP government’s voice is heard.

Keweenaw National Historic Park Announces Commissioned Artist

Kasey Koski will be the 2024 commissioned artist for the Keweenaw National Historic Park and the Isle Royale and Keweenaw Parks Association. When in the UP make sure you go visit the Keweenaw area and check out the work of the commissioned artist and all the other wonderful places there.

Hotel Tax in Upper Peninsula

Lots more comments from observers and readers of last week’s reporting on an additional UP hotel tax that could be distributed to local governments to assist with costs of the many, many more tourists coming to the UP.

One observer said to us that it seemed unlikely that a tourist would not come to the UP and stay at a hotel because there was an additional 2% added on for local governments.

Upper Peninsula Campuses on US Involvement in Israel-Palestinian Issues

Pretty quiet on campuses around the Upper Peninsula. Some encampments by students, but apparently not as large or confrontational as on some campuses around the country. No UP campus commencements disrupted. We are told that this does not mean that students on UP campuses don’t care or are not involved in this issue.

Many campus debates and activities around this issue but no police called in yet that we have heard about.

From the World Around Us

New Proposal from Michigan Futures, Inc. to Help Families

Last fall, Michigan Futures Inc. released “a proposal for a Working Parents Tax Credit (WPTC). As the name suggests, this new refundable tax credit would be targeted to working parents with young children, sending $5,000 to EITC-eligible households for each child under three years old, and $2,500 for each child between the ages of three and six. The motivation for the WPTC is to help working parents with young children afford household necessities including child care, as well as combat the so-called benefit cliff, in which public assistance declines as individuals earn more from work.”

“We estimate that more than 250,000 Michigan children would directly benefit from the enactment of the WPTC, making it unparalleled in its potential impact.” (4.17.24)

Quotes That Make Us Go Hmmm

“It is always better to have no ideas than false ones; to believe nothing than to believe what is wrong.” Thomas Jefferson.

“The biggest communication problem is we do not listen to understand. We listen to reply.” Stephen R. Covey.

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Keep your raves, laurels, rants and darts coming. Send them to us at david@ruralinsights.org. We love to read them.

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Rural Insights connects policy, information, news and culture to raise topics and stories/information you might have not seen or overlooked. We bring you original writing from Rural Insights and other researchers, change makers, and storytellers, as well as our latest research and analysis.

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