Category Archives: Road funding

Legislature Officially Hits Halfway Mark of Term

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With the voting this week, the Legislature officially wrapped up their activity for the year and reached the halfway point of the 2019-2020 legislative term.  The House and Senate are now on recess until January 8th.  All bills introduced in 2019 continue to remain eligible for action until the end of 2020.

Most of the Fall/year-end action these past two weeks has centered on arriving at a deal to resolve the budget cuts and transfers the Governor applied to the Legislature’s budget plan that was submitted just ahead of the October 1st beginning of the current fiscal year.  Following the Governor’s $1.5 billion of cuts and shifts, the debate over finding a compromise heated up and resulted in a deal that was sent to the Governor early this week.  Senate Bills 152 and 154 and House Bills 5176 and 5177 comprised the main pieces of this long-awaited agreement and encompass restoring about half of the GF/GP line item vetoes.  In another action, the Legislature also approved a series of budget transfers totaling over $82 million.  Of key interest for League members, the SB 152 supplemental restored the full $27 million for commercial forest, purchased lands, and swamp/reverted PILT payments to local units of government.  Other impacts to certain local units of government were also restored, like secondary road patrol grants, county jail reimbursements, $15 million for PFAS and emerging contaminate clean-up, blight removal and urban search and rescue grants, $10 million for 2020 census related activities, and $13 million more in GF/GP for road repairs.

The two House Bills moved in conjunction with the budget bills establish a new requirement that the state budget be completed by July 1st every year and that any future State Administrative Board transfers not occur without prior notice to the Legislature.

The other item of focus during the last session days of 2019 related to creating new gaming authority for Michigan’s three commercial casinos and the state’s tribal gaming casinos.  The new authority outlined in House Bills 4307 and 4916 (among other bills) paves the way for internet gaming and sport betting in Michigan.

In other legislative activity this Fall, the House moved HB 5124 with a nearly unanimous vote over to the Senate for future consideration.  This legislation provides an additional, optional tool for local units of government to coordinate with their county to assist residents already afforded a poverty exemption from losing their homes to tax foreclosure.

A six bill legislative package intended to provide more protections for local units of government and stricter requirements for asbestos abatement contractors was recently reintroduced and reported from the House Natural Resources committee. The League has specifically engaged with House Bills 5046, 5047 and 5050. These bills will require asbestos abatement contractors to provide an affidavit to the local unit of government detailing any outstanding environmental violations or criminal offenses prior to entering the contract, require the community contact the Department of Energy, Great Lakes and Environment to investigate any outstanding consent orders, judgement or criminal offenses, and allow local governments to include a provision in a contract that would allow the municipality to withhold any payment to a contractor found by EGLE to have violated environmental regulations within the last 12 months. The full package is anticipated to appear in House Ways and Means Committee in January.

This first year of the 2019-2020 term wrapped up with the League working against a number of local zoning preemption bills. HB 4046 dealing with the zoning of short-term rentals had one hearing where local units of government from across the state expressed their opposition. As a result that bill sits in the House Local Government committee without the support needed to advance it. SB 431 looks to further restrict municipalities in regulating aggregate (gravel) mining operations. We anticipate this bill getting a hearing in Senate Transportation committee, and a bill to be dropped on the House side, early next year.

On the economic development front, SB 54 seeks to restore the state historic tax credit  and had its first hearing earlier this week. We are working to secure another hearing early in 2020, continuing discussions and encouraging legislators to restore this needed tool. SBs 493 and 494 seek to extend the sunset dates of the Commercial Rehabilitation Act and the Commercial Redevelopment Act. Both bills have cleared the Senate and we anticipate the House taking them up early next year. The Good Jobs for Michigan legislation from last term is also seeking a sunset extension through SB 492. This bill is on the Senate floor awaiting a vote.

Since the Governor first took office there has been a constant drumbeat on increasing funding for transportation. Unfortunately the conversation never really materialized in 2019. There is hope that 2020 could still bring new revenue but the consensus is that it won’t be in the form of a .45 cent gas tax increase. The League will continue its engagement with the administration and legislative leaders to pursue a plan that invests in local roads and transit.

Both the House and Senate introduced a package of bills this Fall that would reform a number of transportation issues. Everything from allowing locals to raise their own gas tax (HB 4963) and vehicle registration fees (HB 4964), to requiring approval and identification of funding sources when expanding a local road (SB 521) were debated. Many of the bills are still being worked on, but HB 4966 which would allow cities and villages more flexibility when it comes to spending their Act 51 revenue did passed out of House Transportation Committee. We are hopeful that the new year will begin with a renewed attention on local transportation funding options and we will continue to work with Chairman O’Malley and Representative Sneller on these bills.

Finally, EGLE has announced three public comment dates in mid- January for the PFAS Draft Rules for Supplying Drinking Water to the Public.  Grand Rapids (Jan 8) , Ann Arbor (Jan 14), and Gaylord (Jan 16) are the three communities selected to host these public comment hearings based on their unique experiences with PFAS contamination. The PFAS draft rules were recently released from the Environmental Rules Review Committee on Nov. 14th. The ERRC decided after deliberation over two meetings to allow the rules to move on to the public comment phase, but they retained their authority to bring the draft rules back to the ERRC following the public comment period and before review from the Legislature’s Joint Committee on Administrative Rules (JCAR). The League provided testimony on the stakeholder feedback process and initial review of the draft rules at the Oct. 31 ERRC meeting. See our blog with the details on the public hearings here.

Chris Hackbarth is the League’s director of state & federal affairs. He can be reached at 517-908-0304 and chackbarth@mml.org.

State Budget Battle Goes Into Overtime

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As expected, following the Legislature’s movement of budget bills that the Administration had not signed off on, Governor Whitmer responded aggressively to the legislative spending proposal by issuing 147 separate line items vetoes within the 16 departmental budget bills she signed.  Signing the bills allowed her to avoid a state government shutdown, while the nearly $950 million in spending cuts across all but two of the budgets served notice to legislative leaders of the need to return to the negotiating table.  Following the release of the vetoes, the State Administrative Board met today, on the first day of the new fiscal year, and utilized an obscure legal procedure that allowed the Governor to shift nearly $625 million additional dollars to different lines/programs from those newly appropriated, original line items within 13 different department budgets.

The following budget programs/line items may be of interest to League members:

  • Revenue sharing – Constitutional payments are dictated by sales tax growth which is expected to increase by about 1.7% over current year ($14.2 million) – Statutory revenue sharing payments received an increase of 2.3% for $5.8 million matching the House’s recommendation from earlier this spring and only slightly less than the Governor’s original 3% increase proposal.
    • Additionally, all statutory revenue sharing payments have been rolled into the base appropriation – no more “one-time” or supplemental grants
  • The $1 million new line item for local assessor training grants resulting from last fall’s assessing reform legislation was vetoed by the Governor
  • More than $27 million of local payments in lieu of taxes for Commercial Forest, Purchased Lands, and Swamp & Tax Reverted Lands was vetoed by the Governor
  • Numerous Treasury Local Government Program lines totaling nearly $5 million were shifted and rolled up into one line as a result of State Ad Board actions.
  • MEDC/MSHDA –
    • The Governor shifted $500,000 for blight removal grants ($250,000 rural blight elimination & $250,000 city of Detroit projects performed by nonprofits) along with four other line items totaling over $9 million and transferred those funds into workforce development programs.
    • The Legislature reduced the Business Attraction & Community Revitalization by $26 million ($105.4 million to $89.4 million) with $10 million of the reduction redirected to the new Rural Jobs and Capital Investment Fund that was created last fall.  The Governor vetoed this $10 million redirection.
    • Community Development Block Grants were funded at $47 million, same as previous year
    • The Legislature increased Pure MI funding to $37.5 million (an additional $1.5 million).  The Governor vetoed the entire line.
  • EGLE –
    • $120 million for water infrastructure was appropriated, matching closely to Gov Whitmer’s original budget proposal for clean water projects
      • $30,0000 for Lead and Copper Rule implementation
      • $40,000,000 for PFAS and emerging contaminants
      • $35,000,000 for Drinking Water Revolving Fund loan forgiveness
      • $7,500,000 for affordability and planning
      • $7,500,000 for private well testing – the Governor shifted these dollars into the Lead and Copper Rule implementation line item through State Ad Board action
    • Surface water grants to watershed councils ($675k), Cooperative lakes monitoring program ($150k), and PFAS and emerging contaminates grants to municipal airports ($15m) were among the EGLE line items vetoed by the Governor.
  • LARA –
    • $80 million in MI Indigent Defense Commission grants were continued for the coming year – slight reductions to reflect one-time costs from first year being removed
    • No line item vetoes in this budget, but a number of lines were shifted through State Ad Board action to allow greater spending flexibility by the Department
  • State Police –
    • The Governor vetoed the entire $13 million Secondary Road Patrol program line item.
    • The $654,000 Local Law Enforcement Agency Training Grants line item and MI International Speedway traffic control support ($600,000) were vetoed by the Governor.
    • Through State Ad Board action, the Governor also shifted more than $2 million from a proposed new Trooper School into the Forensic Science line and another $2 million from the First responder communication network line item into an In-car camera video streaming network line item.
  • MDOT –
    • The Legislature included $400 million in GF ($132 million to fully implement the 2015 package one year early, $175 million for roads, $25 million for the Local Bridge programs, $68 million for special projects include specific bridges that Governor Whitmer visited during summer press events). This does not include an addition $468M in earmarked income tax revenue that is a result of the 2015 package. When combined, $868M in non-user fee revenue was proposed to go to roads.  The Governor vetoed $375 million of this GF addition and then shifted the remaining $25 million into transit programs, with an additional $6 million each for Local Bus Operating and Public Transportation Development Service Initiatives, and $13 million sent to the Transit capital – urban line item.
    • The Legislature included $1 million for demolition of the Carbide dock as part of the Soo Locks project which the Governor shifted through the State Ad Board, along with $600,000 from the Marine passenger service line item over to the Intercity Passenger Services line item for a combined addition to that line of $1.6 million.
    • The Governor also used the State Ad Board to shift nearly $40 million from the Rail freight and rail economic development line over to the Rail passenger service line item.

Numerous other legislative priorities were vetoed or redirected by the Governor today, prompting strong reactions on both sides of the political aisle.  The Governor has called for a Thursday meeting of the four “quadrant” caucus leaders to get back to the budget negotiating table.  It remains to be seen how closely the Governor will tie further budget negotiations to a resumption of long term road funding discussions.

Chris Hackbarth is the League’s director of state & federal affairs. He can be reached at 517-908-0304 and chackbarth@mml.org.

Road Condition Maps Released – State Budget Deadline Looming

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With the new state fiscal year only a month away, the lack of a budget deal is consuming discussions in Lansing.  The Governor’s budget closely intertwines the state budget with the need for an additional $2.5 billion investment our road networks.  Legislative leaders have spent the summer developing their own proposals for addressing these two issues and those debates are now coming to a head as the number of days left to adopt a budget without a shutdown dwindle.

Highlighting the increased attention that the road funding debate is garnering, a group of business and industry leaders recently held a press conference calling for action in support of increasing road funding.  The participants reiterated the importance that our transportation infrastructure has on residents and businesses throughout the state.  The press conference also provided an opportunity to release statewide road condition maps that were developed by Michigan’s Transportation Asset Management Council.  This mapping shows all road conditions throughout the state (zoom map to specific communities) and then the maps are broken out by legislative district for the state’s network, offering an analysis of the percentage of state roads in poor condition within those districts.

Legislative leaders reportedly presented the Governor with a series of ideas to raise new revenue or shift revenue from other sources to fund road repairs.  Many of the ideas that were mentioned have been reported on previously, including shifting the sales tax off of gas purchases and bonding/refinancing the unfunded school pension liability, but a couple of new concepts have recently come to light that include a tax on freight haulers and a tax on transportation services like Uber. The potential value of these legislative ideas is likely somewhere in the $1.5-1.8 billion range. The Governor continues to call on the legislature for a full plan and has expressed her objections to any financing changes to the teacher pension system.  This war of words recently heated up with legislative leaders stating they would send the Governor a budget without a roads plan, tackling the road debate separately.  This issue will be at the center of legislative work over the course of the coming month and the League continues to push for additional local revenue options and more favorable distributions to local road agencies.  Look for more updates in the coming weeks.

Chris Hackbarth is the League’s director of state & federal affairs. He can be reached at 517-908-0304 and chackbarth@mml.org.

 

Legislative Update – Mid-Summer Edition

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The Legislature’s summer recess continues throughout the month of July, as leaders meet with their respective caucuses to determine what approach(es) they might take during negotiations with the Governor on road funding. While tentative session days are scheduled this month, the consensus is that they will not reconvene until sometime in August, once they are closer to an agreement on roads and the budget.

Road Funding
While each caucus is meeting internally on road funding, no new funding proposals have been announced, although numerous concepts are being floated in the media.  Additional local option road revenue ideas seem to be on the table in both the House and Senate, but what specifically those local options could look like is still to be decided. League staff are working closely with House, Senate, and Executive leaders to provide input and feedback on a wide variety of proposals that are being considered.

There does seem to be quite a bit of cross-chamber discussion on the notion of shifting sales tax off of gas and raising the gas tax to match the equivalent level that had been charged at the pump. The potential gas tax increase from the shift would equate to approximately 15 cents, raising roughly $850M in new revenue for transportation, and is similar to what the House called for in their version of the budget.   One proposal that has been floated to hold schools and local government harmless from a shift away from sales tax at the pump, involves bonding to cover the state’s MPSERS school pension annual liability.  Both chambers seem supportive of back-filling schools and revenue sharing in some fashion if the final package includes this shift.

Many individual legislators, along with the Governor are touring the state this summer holding townhall meetings and press events to discuss the need for additional road funding. The Governor visited the closed Smith’s Bridge in Ferrysburg/Spring Lake on July 17, and House Transportation committee chair Jack O’Malley (R-Lake Ann) continues his statewide townhall tour with an event scheduled in Saginaw Township on July 22, following recent appearances in Marshall and Niles. Other individual legislators are holding their own office hours meetings on the road funding issue with local and state road officials, as well.

   

PFAS
At the Governor’s direction, the Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy’s PFAS Action Review Team (MPART) recently announced the results of their science advisory workgroup’s health-based values recommendations for drinking water. These initial health recommendations are the first step in the process the Governor has requested for stricter rules on exposure to PFAS substances through drinking water. Utilizing these recommendations, the Department will now proceed to work with stakeholders to develop draft rules for public input later this fall.

The recommendations from the MPART workgroup can be reviewed through our Inside 208 blog here.  We are evaluating which League members might be impacted by any forthcoming rule that would match these recommended levels and what actions/costs would be required to remediate any exposure in excess of these new health levels.  DEGLE has identified the League as a necessary partner in their process as this process develops.

Recreational/Adult-Use Marijuana Emergency Rules
The state also just released the long-anticipated emergency rules on recreational/adult use marijuana. League staff are working with administration/regulatory officials to review these emergency rules and we coordinated with the state to produce a webinar for League members on these new rules on July 16.  A summary of the rules can be seen on the League’s Inside 208 blog here.

Numerous other legislative meetings and workgroups are underway during this summer on important issues like short-term rental zoning preemption, additional tax proposals surrounding personal property tax and charitable exemptions, rail grade separation funding options, and pension and OPEB reporting changes, among others.  Once the legislature and Governor arrive at a road funding and subsequent state budget agreement, a regular session schedule should commence in September.

Chris Hackbarth is the League’s director of state & federal affairs. He can be reached at 517-908-0304 and chackbarth@mml.org.

 

Legislative Activity Update – June 5

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With the Legislature taking a breather last week following their work on no-fault auto insurance reform (Senate Bill 1), the focus from Lansing was on the activity at the Detroit Regional Chamber’s Mackinac Policy Conference on Mackinac Island. Members of our State & Federal Affairs team attended the conference to assist with the SaveMICity activities that took place during the conference and to network with key legislators and state department staff.

We were able to meet individually with state budget and legislative leaders responsible for revenue sharing and road funding and key MEDC and MDOT officials. We also met with numerous legislators, leaders, and staff to highlight League member priority issues throughout the week. Beyond these meetings, the highlight of the week was the reception we co-hosted with our partners at the MI Association of Counties, and the MI Townships Association.  Over two dozen legislators, state department officials, Governor’s staff, and non-profit foundation leaders attended this reception as we talked about the need for municipal finance reform. We continue to see momentum and interest from legislators and leaders on this topic.

Prior to last week, the League was successful in seeing the passage of Senate Resolution 52 and House Resolution 111 by both chambers, recognizing the 120th anniversary of the founding of the Michigan Municipal League.  We worked directly with a number of legislators who formerly served as municipal officials to arrange for the introduction and passage of these resolutions recognizing this important milestone.

This week, the legislature returns to action with a focus on road funding and the state budget. The Governor has expressed an interest in seeing both of these issues resolved before the end of July. Both chambers are working behind the scenes to develop alternatives to the Governor’s 45 cent gas tax proposal to advance the negotiations on road funding.  Individual legislators are scheduling office hours and town hall meetings on this issue with their constituents across the state, with meetings scheduled in Westland, Farmington Hills, Troy, Clawson, Flint, Jackson, and Lansing over next couple of weeks.

We also continue to see action on our requested fix for residential speed limits.  HB 4115 is scheduled for Senate committee action this week with final Senate floor action likely to follow shortly thereafter.

Chris Hackbarth is the League’s director of state & federal affairs. He can be reached at 517-908-0304 and chackbarth@mml.org.

Legislative Activity Update

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As the Legislature moves towards a potential summer recess, a number of keys issues have dominated the political landscape –

Auto Insurance Reform

Most of the recent work in Lansing has centered on the House and Senate movement of auto no-fault insurance reform proposals (HB 4397 and SB 1). The Senate made the first move with their plan, while the House’s plan moved shortly thereafter and included several more consumer-focused provisions. The Governor has publicly stated opposition to both proposals but has entered into negotiations with the Speaker and Senate Majority Leader, pushing all other discussions…including the budget…into the backseat.  Adding pressure to these negotiations is the recent announcement of a citizen initiative ballot proposal backed by Dan Gilbert.

 

Revenue Estimating Conference & State Budget

Despite the bottleneck around no-fault reform, the Consensus Revenue Estimating Conference between the Administration and legislative fiscal agencies took place. The Treasurer, House Fiscal Agency, and Senate Fiscal Agency directors met and agreed to the revenue numbers that will be used to finalize the current budget year and finish building the coming FY19-20 fiscal year budget. The overall numbers remained fairly stable from what was agreed to at the January revenue conference. The current budget (FY18-19) is coming in ahead of what was estimated in January for General Fund by about $151 million.  That trend continues for the coming budget, with about $59 million more than expected in January for the FY19-20 GF/GP budget.

School Aid revenues, with a significant portion coming from Sales Tax proceeds, is coming in lower than was expected in January for both the current year (down $68 million) and the coming year (down $87 million).

This slow down in expected Sales Tax revenue is also estimated to reduce the expected increase for Constitutional Revenue Sharing in next year’s budget.  Where January’s revenue estimate had predicted 3.2% growth for Constitutional payments to local units of government, last week’s consensus agreement now pegs next year’s payments at only a 1.7% growth rate.

On a combined basis, total revenues are up for the current year ($83 million) and down slightly for next year’s budget ($28 million). These numbers will now form the basis of negotiations for the FY19-20 budget which we hope are completed prior to the summer recess.  If a deal is struck on no-fault reform, the focus will then turn to road funding, as the Governor has declared new road money as a requirement for her support of a final budget.

As both the House and Senate position their respective budget versions for passage over to the opposite chamber, the two legislative chambers made significant changes to the Governor’s original proposed budget to account for not including any new revenue for road funding or the related shift back to K-12 schools of School Aid Fund dollars that are currently being used to support the Higher Education and Community College budgets.  The differing General Government budgets containing Revenue Sharing, fall in line with that overall theme, with many line items being changed from the Governor’s proposed budget.  The House version of revenue sharing, HB 4234, lowered the Governor’s recommendation for statutory revenue sharing down from a proposed 3% increase to 2.3% (approx $5.9 million) and adds in a requirement that any increased funds from that 2.3% must be used on outstanding pension liabilities for any community with a pension system funded at less than 60%.  The Senate General Government budget, SB 138, removes the proposed 3% increase to statutory revenue sharing entirely, maintaining those payments at current year levels.  The Senate proposal does include the Governor’s suggested policy change to the current Financially Distressed CVT grant program, changing the program name and expanding the uses of those grants to include public safety, blight removal, and other community revitalization projects.  The Senate also included a new $1 million grant program to fund local assessor training enhancements, following much of the discussion from last year’s assessing reform proposal.

 

Short-term Rentals

The State Affairs team is also engaging in a new workgroup on the two competing short-term rental zoning preemption proposals with the various stakeholder groups. The sponsors of the two different proposals (HB 4046 and HBs 4554–4563)  have laid out an aggressive schedule of meetings over the coming weeks, attempting to balance the competing interests of preserving local zoning and private property rights. Outside of the workgroup, our staff continue to meet with a broad group of legislators in the House and the Senate, focusing on those legislators assigned to the committees where these bills have been assigned.

 

Road Funding

League staff presented to the House Transportation Committee last week, as part of that committee’s weekly focus on educating committee members about the overall road funding situation in Michigan.  Last week’s hearing focused on how cities and villages are funded through PA 51 and the other components of the existing funding formula.

All discussions around any upcoming negotiations on road funding seem to be hinging on the outcome of the current no-fault reform debate and the pending release of an alternate plan from the Senate that could be released

 

PFAS
We also participated in a workgroup meeting on House Bills 4389, 4390, and 4391 sponsored by Reps. Yaroch and Allor. This legislation is related to the use of PFAS as a suppression chemical used for firefighting and the subsequent training required to use such chemicals.  This is likely the first of many different examinations of PFAS and its various uses and potential hazards.

 

Online Sales Tax / Wayfair

The House Tax Policy committee initiated hearings this week on a package of bills designed to ensure that Michigan’s sales and use tax laws align correctly with the US Supreme Court’s recent Wayfair decision, allowing states to collect sales  and use taxes from online transactions.  The package of bills currently being considered (HBs 4540-4543) ensures that Michigan’s law is consistent with the court’s decision and covers purchases directly from an online retailer and from third party transactions conducted through a “marketplace facilitator”, like those conducted through Amazon.com.

 

Chris Hackbarth is the League’s director of state & federal affairs. He can be reached at 517-908-0304 and chackbarth@mml.org.

 

Governor Whitmer Announces Budget Plans & Revenue Sharing Increase

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Governor Gretchen Whitmer will talk about her budget plan at the MML’s 2019 Capital Conference March 19-20.

Governor Whitmer and State Budget Director Chris Kolb appeared before a joint hearing of the House and Senate Appropriations committees this morning to release her Administration’s budget plans for the upcoming fiscal year. We expect the governor to talk about her budget plan when she comes to the League’s Capital Conference March 19-20. She’ll be speaking during our opening general session on the 19th. Don’t miss this unique opportunity to hear from the governor first-hand. Learn more about that here.

As expected, her budget outlined the key initiatives that the Governor had touted during her election campaign last year…road funding, education, and water infrastructure.  Additionally, within the overall budget, the Governor is recommending a 3% increase in statutory revenue sharing ($7.7M), in addition to the estimated 3.2% increase in Constitutional Revenue Sharing payments ($27.5M) that will occur as a result of expected growth in sales tax revenues.

This increase in revenue sharing is also coupled with a $5 million grant fund to support local projects targeting infrastructure, public safety, blight removal and other community revitalization efforts.

In order to accomplish the Governor’s goal of getting 90% of state roads to good or fair condition within 10 years, she is proposing a .45 cent gas tax increase phased in at .15 cents per phase between October of 2019 and October of 2020.  This proposal brings in $2.5 billion in new dedicated road funding.  The existing .26 cent gas tax would continue to be distributed through the PA 51 formula, while this new .45 cent increase would be distributed through a new formula that focuses on economically significant roads (91% directed to interstates, state trunklines, principal arterial roads, and minor arterials and major collector streets).  Transit, bridges and rural roads make up remainder of the distributions under this new formula proposal.

Under the existing road funding proposal, the planned $600 million income tax/General Fund diversion to roads would be eliminated and those GF/GP dollars would be freed up to be used to fund higher education appropriations that are being supported currently within the school aid budget.

The additional gas tax burden on Michigan residents would be off-set through a proposed repeal of the 2011 “pension tax” and a doubling of the Earned Income Tax Credit.  These two tax relief proposals would be phased in to match the proposed gas tax phase-in and would reduce GF/GP revenues by about $450 million per year.

The budget impact from this tax relief would be partially off-set by a proposed expansion of the state’s Corporate Income Tax to apply that tax to current pass-through business entities.  This expansion would bring in about $280 million in GF/GP revenue per year.

For school funding, the Governor is proposing to increase education spending by approximately $500 million.  The main component of the proposed increase would go to a Foundation Allowance increase of between $120 and $180 per pupil.  The School Aid increase is possible due to the shift of higher education budget support back to GF/GP, as outlined above in the road funding proposal.

Water infrastructure spending will see a $120 million increase within what was announced today.  Approximately $37.5 million would be dedicated to support lead and copper rule implementation expenses for local water systems.  The proposal also calls for $30 million for PFAS and other contaminate clean-ups and $40 million for Drinking Water Revolving Fund loan forgiveness for local water systems.

Additional specifics from today’s budget announcement can be found on the State Budget website here.

Governor Whitmer’s budget presentation slides and the State Budget Director’s presentation can be viewed here.

A statement about the budget from League CEO and Executive Director Dan Gilmartin can be found here.

Specific program white paper analyses can be found here covering the roads proposal, tax proposals, water initiatives, K-12 program spending, and higher education.

Both House and Senate Appropriations committees and the various departmental subcommittees will now begin their review of the Governor’s proposal and begin their individual departmental and program budget development over the next two months with an eye toward completing the FY2020 budget before the summer recess.

Chris Hackbarth is the League’s director of state & federal affairs. He can be reached at 517-908-0304 and chackbarth@mml.org

Dan Gilmartin and Melanie Piana Wrap Up Busy, Productive Week in D.C.

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From Left League CEO & Executive Director Dan Gilmartin, Irma Esparza Diggs, League President Melanie Piana, Congressman Dan Kildee and NLC CEO Clarence Anthony.

(View more photos here)

They’re fighting for Michigan communities. They’re fighting for all the nation’s communities. They are fighting for more funding for infrastructure. They’re networking and building partnerships.

Wow, what a week for Michigan Municipal League CEO & Executive Director Dan Gilmartin and League Board President Melanie Piana, Ferndale city council member!!!

They have had an action-packed few days in Washington D.C. doing events around the State of the Union Address (Tuesday) and participating in Infrastructure Week and events with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National League of Cities.

They’ve met and seen numerous lawmakers, including U.S. Congressman Dan Kildee and U.S. Congressman Andy Levin. They’ve been working side-by-side all week with NLC Officials Clarence Anthony, CEO and executive director. and Irma Esparza Diggs, senior executive and director of federal advocacy. Read more about their time in D.C. this week here.

League Board President Melanie Piana with Congressman Andy Levin in D.C. this week.

Here is some additional information about their time in D.C. and the events they participated in:

NLC Event Thursday: City Hall 101: The Role of Cities in Moving America Forward

U.S. Chamber of Commerce event: Time to Invest in America’s Infrastructure

View more photos in this album on the League’s flickr page here.

Dan Gilmartin and Westland Mayor William Wild Talk Lame Duck, Governor Whitmer on ‘The W’

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We here at SaveMICity.org highly recommend that you check out a new interview with the Michigan Municipal League’s Dan Gilmartin and Westland Mayor William Wild. The 15-minute talk on “In the W with Mayor Wild” covers an array of city-related topics, including term limits, the craziness of Lame Duck late last year, fixing the roads, how Governor Gretchen Whitmer seems to understand the needs of communities and so much more.

League CEO Dan Gilmartin (right) talks with Westland Mayor William Wild the cable show “In the W with Mayor Wild”.

It’s really a great interview on Westland’s “W” cable TV show hosted by Mayor Wild, who is also a League board member, and featuring Gilmartin, League CEO and Executive Director. It’s available on YouTube here and Dan’s segment in the show starts just before the 26-minute mark and runs about 15 minutes. Definitely worth your time. The full 39-minute show is also compelling as it focuses on the recent Lame Duck session and what it means for communities like Westland.

Here’s the description of the show from the city: We have a new Governor, new elected leaders in Congress and on the state level. You may be wondering: What died and what was in play during Michigan’s Lame Duck session and what do all the changes in Lansing mean to you? That’s exactly what Mayor Wild talked about with his guests. Bob Kowsowski is a former State Representative. Jordyn Sellek is the Executive Director of the Conference of Western Wayne and Dan Gilmartin is the CEO and Executive Director of the Michigan Municipal League.

Please check it out here.

Watch Our First Monday Morning Live Chat on Facebook

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(Click here to watch the Facebook Live video)

MMLive logoWe covered a lot of ground in the Michigan Municipal League’s first ever – Monday Morning Live broadcast on Facebook Live.

And while the live broadcast that took place 10:30 a.m. this morning is over you can still watch it anytime on the League’s Facebook page here.

Go here to watch it.

Our first one was today and featured a chat led by the League’s Matt Bach, director of communications, with our Lansing legislative team – Chris Hackbarth, John LaMacchia and Jennifer

Our first Monday Morning Live broadcast took place this morning and featured (from left) the League's Matt Bach, John LaMacchia, Chris Hackbarth and Jennifer Rigterink. Tune in for our next one 10:30 a.m. Dec. 3 on the League's facebook page.

Our first Monday Morning Live broadcast took place this morning and featured (from left) the League’s Matt Bach, John LaMacchia, Chris Hackbarth and Jennifer Rigterink. Tune in for our next one 10:30 a.m. Dec. 3 on the League’s facebook page.

Rigterink.

Our next two scheduled Monday Morning Live broadcasts are Monday, Dec. 3 and Monday, Dec. 17.

It’s an active time right now in Lansing with the Lame Duck period of the state Legislature getting underway now and continuing for the next few weeks.

On our first chat, we talked about the November election results, what we’re hearing may or may not come up during Lame Duck, what Proposal 1 legalizing recreational marijuana in Michigan means for our communities and what the first part of next year will be like for our Legislative team.

We also answered several questions from those watching the Live feed, including one question about breed-specific legislation. Jennifer handled that one.