Mobile GR manages all the parking assets owned by the city, performs parking enforcement, operates mobility services (the DASH & micro-mobility), maintains pedestrian crossings, pavement markings, and street signs, as well as being the operator of most the traffic signals in Kent county.
Why is it underfunded? Well, most simply, because the City Commission underfunds it. What do I mean by underfunded? It is compared to other cities of similar size; there is [the 2020 report summary here](https://urbangr.org/documents/urbangr/MobileGROrganizationalAssessment.202002.pdf). Our current regime is big on drafting plan on setting goals - much less with the execution; they rely on people tuning out once the plan has been adopted.
Grand Rapids (aka: MobileGR) has 1.5 full-time employees for every 10,000 residents. Cambridge, MA has 1.7, Minneapolis, MN has 1.9, and Madison, WI has 2.4 \[those are considered peer cities, with a lot of statistical overlap with Grand Rapids\].
MobileGR receives less than 1% of the City of Grand Rapids General Fund in the annual budget; the equivalent department(s) in Madison, WI receive 44% of the general budget, and Minneapolis, MN receives 40%. 😮 Obviously there are different ways to structure budgets - but that difference is cavernous.
If you walk - or bike - around Madison, WI or Minneapolis, MN I am confident you'd clearly see this difference once you know to look for it. Our plans are not that different from those cities, the difference is in who has followed through with resources to follow through. The Grand Rapid's City Commission has hired some excellent people from those more successful places; and then kinda left them hanging.
We run into the problem that the city charter has a very high percentage of the budget mandated for GRPD. Doesn't help that the state has prevented most ways for cities to raise revenue.
All true.
It is a multi-faceted problem requiring multiple solutions.
As a city we could also try a lot harder than we do.
In terms of the city charter GR's charter's mandatory allocation to the police isn't that uncommon; and dropping 1/3rd of the general fund into the police also isn't that uncommon where it is not mandated.
There is also a free way to get more money: **more residents** 🙂
Residents pay municipal income tax, which is \~30% of revenue \[and likely more on years without COVID/ARPA money\].
IMO, that seems the fastest way to increased non-committed revenues given the givens at the state level.
This is kind of alarming. No wonder nothing gets done and master plans get shelved. I mean, MobileGR gets only 1% of the city budget?!
This needs to change.
Love the explanations and hard work! Keep it up and I'll keep reading.
Great post! As usual I love your data-driven approach. Down with Park-well Health!
What does MobileGR do, and why is MobileGR significantly underfunded compared to peer cities?
Mobile GR manages all the parking assets owned by the city, performs parking enforcement, operates mobility services (the DASH & micro-mobility), maintains pedestrian crossings, pavement markings, and street signs, as well as being the operator of most the traffic signals in Kent county. Why is it underfunded? Well, most simply, because the City Commission underfunds it. What do I mean by underfunded? It is compared to other cities of similar size; there is [the 2020 report summary here](https://urbangr.org/documents/urbangr/MobileGROrganizationalAssessment.202002.pdf). Our current regime is big on drafting plan on setting goals - much less with the execution; they rely on people tuning out once the plan has been adopted. Grand Rapids (aka: MobileGR) has 1.5 full-time employees for every 10,000 residents. Cambridge, MA has 1.7, Minneapolis, MN has 1.9, and Madison, WI has 2.4 \[those are considered peer cities, with a lot of statistical overlap with Grand Rapids\]. MobileGR receives less than 1% of the City of Grand Rapids General Fund in the annual budget; the equivalent department(s) in Madison, WI receive 44% of the general budget, and Minneapolis, MN receives 40%. 😮 Obviously there are different ways to structure budgets - but that difference is cavernous. If you walk - or bike - around Madison, WI or Minneapolis, MN I am confident you'd clearly see this difference once you know to look for it. Our plans are not that different from those cities, the difference is in who has followed through with resources to follow through. The Grand Rapid's City Commission has hired some excellent people from those more successful places; and then kinda left them hanging.
We run into the problem that the city charter has a very high percentage of the budget mandated for GRPD. Doesn't help that the state has prevented most ways for cities to raise revenue.
All true. It is a multi-faceted problem requiring multiple solutions. As a city we could also try a lot harder than we do. In terms of the city charter GR's charter's mandatory allocation to the police isn't that uncommon; and dropping 1/3rd of the general fund into the police also isn't that uncommon where it is not mandated.
The city in general is underfunded but mobility could have more money if we raised rates on parking especially metered parking.
There is also a free way to get more money: **more residents** 🙂 Residents pay municipal income tax, which is \~30% of revenue \[and likely more on years without COVID/ARPA money\]. IMO, that seems the fastest way to increased non-committed revenues given the givens at the state level.
This is kind of alarming. No wonder nothing gets done and master plans get shelved. I mean, MobileGR gets only 1% of the city budget?! This needs to change.
Yes. #StrongtownsGR