Commissioner Nakagiri urges county to press developers, warns Lansing plan could increase county court costs

Commissioner Nakagiri used his commissioner-comments time to highlight two policy concerns for Livingston County:

First, he cited a Michigan Public Service Commission approach that requires data centers to pay for the full cost of electrical infrastructure as a precedent the county could follow when negotiating developer-funded drain or sewer modifications. "It is eerily similar to what I advocate the county to do when we're modifying drains on behalf of a developer," Nakagiri said, arguing that existing users should not be saddled with costs for new development.

Second, Nakagiri said he will attend a joint House and Senate judiciary committee hearing in Lansing on court funding. He warned that the proposed court-funding approach could increase local maintenance-of-effort obligations by tying county contributions to property-tax revenue increases rather than a modest inflation cap. "They will take all of the grant funding. They will take all of the fines and costs, and that'll go to Lansing," Nakagiri said, adding that a shift in the maintenance-of-effort calculation could increase the county's annual obligation; he estimated the county-level maintenance-of-effort figure cited in the discussion would be about $6,000,000 under certain assumptions in the report.

Nakagiri said he plans to review the report carefully, will raise concerns at the Lansing hearing and will follow up with county policymakers.