SECONDARY ROAD PATROL PROGRAM: 

FY 2017-18 MAINTENANCE OF EFFORT

House Concurrent Resolution 13

Sponsor:  Rep. Aaron Miller

Committee:  Appropriations

Complete to 9-18-17

SUMMARY

House Concurrent Resolution 13 would waive the maintenance of effort (MOE) requirement mandated for county sheriff departments as a condition of receiving funding under the Secondary Road Patrol (SRP) Program for FY 2017-18, in addition to waiving the MOE requirement on cities and villages to be eligible for road patrol services by county sheriff departments.

Background InformatioN:

Established by 1978 PA 416, the Secondary Road Patrol Program provides grant assistance to county sheriff departments with the express purpose of patrolling county and local roads outside the boundaries of cities and villages.  Sheriff deputies funded with SRP funds are specifically tasked with traffic control, criminal law enforcement, accident investigation, and emergency assistance while patrolling these secondary roads.  Sheriff deputies may provide patrol services within cities and villages upon the approval of a resolution of the city or village's governing board.

The SRP Program is supported by a distribution from the Justice System Fund (MCL 600.181) to the Secondary Road Patrol and Training Fund (MCL 257.629e) equal to $10 for each civil traffic violation.  SRP grant funds are distributed to counties based on each county's share of transportation (roads) funding allocated in 1978. 

To be eligible to receive SRP grants, each county must satisfy a maintenance of effort (MOE) requirement established as the number of FTE county-funded road patrol deputies employed on October 1, 1978.  Statewide, the MOE requirement is 1,043 FTE county-funded road patrol deputies and, during FY 2015-16, the actual number of FTE county-funded road patrol deputies totaled 2,184, of which 125 were funded through SRP.[1] While the total number of statewide FTEs may exceed the statewide MOE requirement, some counties could fall below their individual MOE requirements.

A county may reduce the level of FTE county-funded road patrol deputies to a level below its MOE requirement and not be disqualified for SRP grants if it can show that it reduced its general services because of an economic hardship.

FISCAL IMPACT:

HCR 13 would allow counties to receive and expend Secondary Road Patrol grant funds in FY 2017-18 without meeting the MOE specified in statute.  Based on grant applications received to-date and current-year grant activities, a preliminary estimate from the Department of State Police indicates that currently there are four counties (Branch, Iosco, Otsego, and Wayne) that could potentially fail to meet the MOE requirement and would thus be ineligible for SRP assistance–their share of which is estimated at approximately $1.5 million, based upon FY 2015-16 distributions. The resolution would also waive the MOE requirement to allow cities and villages to receive road patrol services from the county sheriff departments, which would allow them to continue to achieve local cost efficiencies through those joint arrangements.

                                                                                                                       

                                                                                                Fiscal Analyst:   Kent Dell

■ This analysis was prepared by nonpartisan House Fiscal Agency staff for use by House members in their deliberations, and does not constitute an official statement of legislative intent.

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