Michigan State University Extension's State and Local Government Area of Expertise Team helps the people of Michigan improve their civic lives through an educational process that applies knowledge to critical needs, issues, and opportunities.
For more than 50 years, state and local government education hasbeen an integral part of MSU Extension's work to link the concernsof the people of Michigan with the knowledge resources of the state's land grant university (MSU).
The State and Local Government team offers learning opportunities and information to public officials and the general citizenry on these and other topics:
- state and local government organization and process
- public budgeting and finance
- intergovernmental agreements
- taxation
- strategic planning for governmental units
- effective meeting management
The state and local government public policy education effort offers analysis, assistance and facilitation. It does not promote specific policy decisions or outcomes and it focuses on both content and process, enabling individuals and groups to make better informed decisions.
I know of no safe depository of the ultimate powers of society but the people themselves, and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise their control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them, but to inform their discretion.
- Thomas Jefferson, 1820