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Podcast 83 Legislative Update, March 25, 2025
In this week’s episode, MAC’s Podcast 83 discusses the progress of a House GOP roads plan that is a “huge winner” for counties and a problem that has arisen in funding county veteran services grants.
“Road funding had some developments last week,” noted host Stephan Currie.
“The Michigan House of Representative passed out their road funding plan,” replied Deena Bosworth, MAC’s governmental affairs director. “That road funding plan is a huge winner for county road systems across the state.
“Looking at the estimates that were put out by the House Fiscal Agency on that distribution, it’s at least, at a minimum, a 97 percent increase in road funding for each county. …
“I will say we're still waiting on a proposal by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer,” Bosworth added, “and we're also waiting on a proposal from the Michigan Senate. I anticipate that it will be a combined proposal, and it will be similar to what the House passed out, but not exactly. I anticipate the Senate and the governor to recommend some revenue increases so that we're not looking at such a potential decrease in the state's General Fund.”
By contrast, the cash is not flowing quickly to counties trying to serve military veterans.
“Something we've kind of heard about from some counties recently is about veteran grants,” Currie said. “Some of these grants that may have been incorrectly calculated by the state and causing some problems locally?”
“These are veterans grants for the fiscal year 25, which started last Oct. 1,” Bosworth replied. “What we understand is the Department of Military and Veterans Affairs last October said, ‘Hey, counties, thanks for applying for your veteran service grants. Everything's great. This is how much money you're going to get.’
“Come to find out, on Feb.18, the department had to do a recalculation of the funds … They notify counties, and some of them are getting a 60 percent to 70 percent decrease in the amount,” Bosworth said.
“They had a hearing on it last week in the Appropriations Subcommittee on Military and Veterans Affairs and legislators were not happy at all. After that committee meeting, I got a phone call from Rep. Julie Rogers (D-Kalamazoo) … and she let me know that she's absolutely looking for an additional appropriation to try and keep counties whole for fiscal year 25 so she's out there trying to figure out how to make this right.”
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By DerekIn this week’s episode, MAC’s Podcast 83 discusses the progress of a House GOP roads plan that is a “huge winner” for counties and a problem that has arisen in funding county veteran services grants.
“Road funding had some developments last week,” noted host Stephan Currie.
“The Michigan House of Representative passed out their road funding plan,” replied Deena Bosworth, MAC’s governmental affairs director. “That road funding plan is a huge winner for county road systems across the state.
“Looking at the estimates that were put out by the House Fiscal Agency on that distribution, it’s at least, at a minimum, a 97 percent increase in road funding for each county. …
“I will say we're still waiting on a proposal by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer,” Bosworth added, “and we're also waiting on a proposal from the Michigan Senate. I anticipate that it will be a combined proposal, and it will be similar to what the House passed out, but not exactly. I anticipate the Senate and the governor to recommend some revenue increases so that we're not looking at such a potential decrease in the state's General Fund.”
By contrast, the cash is not flowing quickly to counties trying to serve military veterans.
“Something we've kind of heard about from some counties recently is about veteran grants,” Currie said. “Some of these grants that may have been incorrectly calculated by the state and causing some problems locally?”
“These are veterans grants for the fiscal year 25, which started last Oct. 1,” Bosworth replied. “What we understand is the Department of Military and Veterans Affairs last October said, ‘Hey, counties, thanks for applying for your veteran service grants. Everything's great. This is how much money you're going to get.’
“Come to find out, on Feb.18, the department had to do a recalculation of the funds … They notify counties, and some of them are getting a 60 percent to 70 percent decrease in the amount,” Bosworth said.
“They had a hearing on it last week in the Appropriations Subcommittee on Military and Veterans Affairs and legislators were not happy at all. After that committee meeting, I got a phone call from Rep. Julie Rogers (D-Kalamazoo) … and she let me know that she's absolutely looking for an additional appropriation to try and keep counties whole for fiscal year 25 so she's out there trying to figure out how to make this right.”