 We surveyed local leaders across Michigan for the last six years and what we found is that local government fiscal health was in a tailspin back in 2009 at the end of the Great Recession and it got even worse in 2010. But in 2011 we found the beginning of a new trend of gradual fiscal improvement and that's continued for a fourth year now into 2014. For the first time we've just crossed a tipping point where more local governments 36 percent tell us that they're doing better today than they were a year ago compared to those who say they're doing worse, 24 percent. This is up significantly from the low point in 2010 when just 9 percent were doing better and 61 percent were doing worse. To understand fiscal health we ask local leaders if their jurisdictions are better able or less able to meet their fiscal needs today compared to a year ago. And so for the 24 percent that are doing worse today local leaders tell us that's due to a wide range of factors. They're more likely to tell us that they've had cuts in property tax revenue, cuts in state aid and fiscal and federal aid, increasing tax delinquencies and home foreclosures. They're also more likely to tell us that they face increasing public service demands so they have more pressure to spend more on infrastructure, human services, public safety and so on. So fiscal health is due to a wide range of factors on both the revenue and expenditure sides of the ledger. Looking ahead 35 percent of local leaders expect their jurisdictions to be better off a year from now, but a stubborn 22 percent expect to be even worse off. One particularly worrisome finding is among jurisdictions that are worse off today, 76 percent expect to be even worse off a year from now. And by comparison among those who are better off today, 81 percent expect to be better off a year from now. And so this really points out two different groups of local governments that are moving in two different directions.