You may have read this last week that the Mason County Board of Commissioners made a resolution of their intent to establish a Promise Zone for the high school graduates of the county. The 9 AM meeting on Tuesday, January 9th was attended by a classroomful of local school principals, administrators, and teachers playing hooky in order to present a consolidated front of Promise Zone support to the county board.

The local discussion began in earnest back in November, when the Mason County Press alerted the public to a meeting at the Ludington Area Center of the Arts later that month to discuss the concept.  It was noted by Promise organizer Annette Quillan that they had no funds at that point.  This meeting attracted a lot of educators and some of the public to listen to a pro-Promise message from Quillan and new LASD Superintendent Jason Kennedy.  

At the December 12th County Board meeting, the commissioners resolved to send a letter of intent to the state treasurer to establish a Promise Zone for the county, there was no public notice of this action other than at the very bottom of that meeting's agenda

On December 19, the local newspaper reported that MCC School Superintendent Mount was excited about the prospect and how great it would be for the county without ever mentioning an upcoming public hearing and vote by the County Commission.  School administrators love the potential promise of increased enrollments and money they expect will come with it.  Also hiding in the lower corner of page 6 of that issue and the same place the previous day, was the required notice the County Board needed for a public hearing that would take place at the aforementioned early hours of January 9th.

Like the November meeting, this was an informational meeting that reportedly featured the finest features of Promise Zones attended by very strong proponents of the local school systems who would likely see some benefits from the designation.  The rest of the public unable to attend the meeting never saw the commissioners vote unanimously for the resolution which made them the last of the 15 Promise Zones.  With the possibility of Grand Rapids falling ahead of them, depending on what the state determines about their public notice failing at an earlier hearing, as noted at Mlive on 12-22-17.

But you may not know exactly what a Promise Zone is or how they originated in our state. It started back in 2005, when anonymous donors made it possible to provide all graduates of the Kalamazoo Public Schools full tuition scholarships to any state university or community college in Michigan.

Then-Governor Jennifer Granholm called for the establishment of “Promise Zones” in Michigan’s economically distressed cities one year later. Each zone would be a public-private partnership committed to ensuring that every child in a community had a tuition-free path to at least an associate's degree. Lawmakers of both parties collaborated to develop Promise Zones legislation in 2007 and by January 2009, Granholm signed Act 549 of 2008 into law.

The transition from voluntary private donors to less-than-voluntary public-private funding was potentially a dicy step, the public money would have to come from somewhere, and those places would be limited due to the need of voter approval to raise tax rates in Michigan due to the Headlee Act. While it seems like a worthy concept, voters might be hesitant to create a new, potentially large, tax on themselves for what was effectively a guaranteed college education.

The law instead created a familiar public funding mechanism that allows up to ten (now fifteen) cities, counties, or school districts to “capture” half of the growth in a state-levied property tax, to support the provision of college scholarships. This "tax increment financing" (TIF) is familiar to Ludington Torch readers as a scheme for created public or public/private entities to effectively tax the taxing authorities of an area with the belief that the new entity and their actions is contributing significantly to the growth of the affected area.

But the money taken from those taxing authorities (whether they be from the treasury of a county, city, library, pension board, mass transit authority, soldier relief fund, etc.) by the TIF create shortfalls in their budgets which may leave them ill-equipped to handle their own responsibilities, much like the large portion of money taken out of your paycheck affects your abilities to pay for the necessities and desires of your life.

To be sure, the first two years of a Promise Zone's existence of operations must be funded from non-public sources, that's why Quillan's admission of an empty coffer may signify that the actual Promise Zone may take some time.  Working in the Promise Zone's favor, however, is that the Mason County Foundation, a local charitable organization that often supports such high-profile programs financially, is being led by previous LASD Superintendent Andrea Large, who attended the Promise meetings and will likely supply a healthy amount of funds for those first two years. 

If the money doesn't come in, our promise zone may end up like the one started in Jackson, where they needed $2 million to get the ball rolling and wound up nearly $2 million short with $63,000.  There just isn't a lot of incentive for individuals of the area to invest in the project other than the promise of higher taxes in the near future to compensate for the TIF district forming.  

After that, our graduating seniors will start 'capturing' taxes through their Mason County Promise Zone Authority to help pay their college tuitions depending on what the MCPZA draws up.  Expect West Shore Community College to inflate their tuition more than modestly in response and a very modest increase, if any, of enrollments and graduation rates among our kids once it starts taking effect.  

Which is fine, however, the additional TIF scheme to fund it after the first two years of operation and the additional TIFs sought by other developments like the so-called 'bowling alley block' will add up and continue to drain Mason County and State taxes with the 'promise' of growth and development.  A promise is made to some of our society, and others are forced to back that promise under threat of losing their homes if they don't.  This wasn't Kalamazoo's original promise.

Perhaps Michigan should look closely at what happened with California and their experiments with TIF.   They abandoned this "Ponzi scheme" much like Promise Zone promoter Governor Jenny Granholm abandoned Michigan for California for good within a month of being replaced.  

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Willy, I fit best in size 'large' t-shirts, and I trust you will choose a tasteful and handsome design for the back of it that will take advantage of the fact that I sit in front of the camera with my shoulder blades above the seat.  If you value your anonymity, you can design and order it from various on-line sources rather than using one of our capable local screen printers.

If you (or anybody else with an inclination) make one, I will wear it regularly as a sign that I value your input and support.  If I make it for myself, it may come off as a tacky bit of self-promotion.  You know my address.

I'm not good at word designing but a simple message is all that's needed. Any place that prints Tshirts can come up with a nice design. Just the fact that people would be able to know where to get the right message and information is all it would take. You could make up a jacket or shirt for when you start riding your bike. Even a baseball cap with the web page address.

Three months ago, I forecasted like a modern day Nostradamus that this would transpire with a prospective Promise Zone:  "Expect West Shore Community College to inflate their tuition more than modestly..."  (see the third to last paragraph in the article).

Yesterday, they raised tuition by 3% across the board in their first meeting after the new PZ board was recently created.  Expect more before(if) the Mason County Promise Zone Board gets enough seed money to function for a couple of years. 

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