The Headlee Amendment requires that when the state mandates local governments to provide any new or expanded program, the state must provide full funding. (Article 9 Section 29)

The terms of the Headlee Amendment may not specifically apply to the costs of this initiative since the People,not the state, are mandating this program through a constitutional amendment rather than having the state mandate and implement the program through legislation.

Either way, it’s important that this initiative place no undue financial burden on the county governments by providing the means to fund itself.

COSTS:

The cost of implementation of this initiative is minimal and should cost the county, on average, no more than around $10,000/year as detailed below:

Section	County Responsibilities	Cost
3 (a) 5	In the absence of a convened People’s Grand Jury the people may initiate a public meeting allowing those attending to select a temporary Board to coordinate the selection of the initial county People’s Grand Jury according to the provisions within this Article. Once selected, the temporary Board will be dissolved, and the jurors will establish their Board as referenced in Section 3 (a) 3 of this Article. The county must post public notice of this meeting and provide access to a meeting room; The cost to the county to post notice will me minimal – consisting of small ad in the paper and notice on the bulletin board. The people initiating the meeting may promote it over and above the efforts of the county. Every county already has meeting rooms available, and can schedule one for use, when available, to satisfy the requirements within this initiative.	$25
3 (a) 6	The county will provide each People’s Grand Juror with a copy of the United States and Michigan Constitutions for reference when evaluating charges against Public Servants. Assume $1 for the US Constitution and $4 for the Michigan Constitution: (26 jurors @ $5 each)	$130
3 (b) 1	The county will, upon the Board’s request, select and notify individuals to serve as potential jurors as described herein: Selection of the potential People’s Grand Jury pool should cost the county nothing. Each county already has a staffed data processing department with complete access to the existing list of residents which will be used to populate the pool of potential jurors. They already select potential jurors for trial juries on demand. The programming to select jurors according to the terms of this initiative is relatively simple — a member of our team wrote a program to select sample jurors as specified within the initiative in a matter of 2-3 hours. The task can easily be handled by the county’s data processing department without additional cost.	$0
3 (b) 2	After the selection of jurors is verified as accurate and approved by the Board, the county will send a Board-generated notification to the potential jurors requesting they verify their eligibility and desire to serve as a People’s Grand Juror, and to respond back to the Board by a specified return date; Assume 2000 letters @ $0.50/letter.	$1,000
3 (d)1	The county will provide a meeting room and mailing address for use by the People’s Grand Jury, accept mail delivery, and securely hold mail addressed to the People’s Grand Jury; As noted previously, the county already has meeting rooms which may be scheduled for use when empty, and already has staff available to accept and hold mail for existing county officers. There will be no additional cost incurred by the county in performance of this requirement.	$0
3 (f)	The county must reimburse People’s Grand Jurors consistent with payment for jury service by county law when in session; Jury reimbursement costs vary by county within Michigan. For the purpose of explanation, Oakland County’s reimbursement structure will be used. Oakland County reimburses its jurors $12.50 per half day or $25.00/per day, when in session, plus $0.10/mile. Assume the People’s Grand Jury meets in session one day per month with an average round trip mileage of 20 miles. The annual cost would be computed as ($25/day + $2.00 mileage) * 12 months * 26 Jurors: The cost will vary based on the caseload meaning that a small caseload will decrease the number of days in session correspondingly decreasing the cost to the county. Larger caseloads will increase the costs, but these increased costs will more than be offset by the additional filing fees received.	$8,424
	Total Expected Cost per County:	$9,579

REVENUE:

Section 3 (c) 2: The county in which the charges are filed will collect a filing fee of $100 adjusted annually by the federal Consumer Price Index.

The filing fee serves two purposes: First, it funds the costs of the initiative; Second, it discourages friviolous charges against public servants.

The People’s Grand Jury costs about $700 every day it meets (26 jurors * ($25 jury fee + $2 mileage)).

According to Section 3 (d) 2 — “The People’s Grand Jury shall schedule sessions as necessary to handle its caseload.” Therefore, the Board of the Peoples Grand Jury could schedule sessions after 10 or so cases have been filed and are awaiting review and evaluation. The filing fees for ten cases will yield about $1,000 which would cost about $700 for the People’s Grand Jury to review. The excess can be used to pay per diem charges for Multiple County Jurisdiction service when cases are filed outside the county.

Summary for Average to Large County

Revenue or Charge Description	Amount
People’s Grand Jury costs, on average, with 12 session days per year (as noted above)	$9,579
Annual filing fees received for 10 cases filed per month @ $100 each. (10 filings per month * 12 months * $100 filing fee)	$12,000
Excess annual filing fee revenue over People’s Grand Jury Costs on average.	$2,421

The excess revenue in this example could fund over 60 days in service to Multiple County Jurisdiction juries based on $25/day jury service fee and $15 mileage reimbursement.

Summary for Small County

Assume a very small county People’s Grand Jury, such as Keweenaw County with a 2010 population of 2,191, meets three times per year with three half day sessions evaluating an average of 5 cases per session or 15 cases per year. Also, with such a small population its likely that this county will have the minimum number of People’s Grand Jurors consisting of 13.

Revenue or Charge Description	Amount	Total
Costs for implementing a People’s Grand Jury:
Post Notice:	$25
Supply copy of federal and state Constitutions: 13 Jurors * $5 ($1 for US and $4 for Michigan Constitutions)	$65
Mailings to potential jury pool of 1,467 people: Assume 2/3rds of the population of the county meets the c	$734
Total Peoples Grand Jury Implementation Costs:		$824
Annual juror reimbursement costs: 13 jurors * 3 sessions * $14,50 per session: ($12.50 half day reimbursement + $2.00 mileage)	$565.50
Total People’s Grand Jury Costs:		$1,389.50
Annual filing fees received for 15 cases filed annually @ $100 each.		$1,500
Excess annual filing fee revenue over People’s Grand Jury Costs.		$110.50

These are simply examples, but prove the concept that the initiative funds itself.