 legislative updates as a county we are fortunate to have several elected officials who represent us locally at the state level and nationally we are glad to have them as guests on our site to express their opinions on specific issues of concern to all of us and to keep us up to date on what they are doing to protect our rights and freedoms the following is a letter to the editor from clinton county commissioner adam stacey from the 7th district bath victor townships  incomes are falling in michigan and unemployment is on the rise some of the more fortunate of us are coping with increased workload and lower pay the less fortunate of us are outofwork and searching for new employment while burdened with homes that won rsquo t easily sell your county government understands these hardships and is doing the same thing that thousands of families living in clinton county are doing everyday ndash spending less while our state leaders in lansing are debating higher taxes to fund the ever increasing cost of state government county government has chosen a more sensible course of action to manage these lean times we are reducing expenditures to fall in line with declining revenues this is in response to a 43 decrease in taxable value in our county from the collapse of the housing bubble property tax collections will continue to decrease over the next few years as the housing market continues to recover county government remains committed to providing taxpayers with the same high quality level of service they have come to expect we have introduced greater efficiencies in our operations and eliminated positions after employees have left or retired every department is on the same page and cooperating with the administration to reduce costs at the same time we are making sound and strategic investments for the future a county park is being developed that will be open next spring to offer greater recreational opportunities for future generations energy efficiencies have been introduced into county facilities generating tens of thousands of dollars in annual savings necessary capital improvements are still being made to execute our core functions these tough financial times are an opportunity to pursue even greater reforms to generate longterm savings since county roads are funded by gas tax collections we should pursue multicounty partnerships to stretch our limited road construction dollars county government can also serve as a bridge to form joint ventures between different townships villages and cities to encourage efficiencies at local level while expanding programs and services local control is important but we should facilitate partnerships where common sense dictates your elected leaders in clinton county government are prepared to meet the challenges of the future while staying in touch with the common sense virtues of fiscal responsibility and prudent planning for tomorrow adam c stacey clinton county commissioner bath victor townships  