Host: Stephan Currie

Guests: Deena Bosworth and Samantha Gibson of MAC

Topics: Podcast 83 takes on a Washington, D.C., flavor this week as the MAC team discussed the details of a briefing from the National Association of Counties (NACo) on June 5.

“(NACo Executive Director Matt Chase) and his team talked a lot about what's happening with federal funding, and some of the concerns that we have around that, whether it's Medicaid or the SNAP program,” reported Deena Bosworth. “They talked about this designation as sanctuary cities or sanctuary counties, and some of the confusion surrounding that … and then they really dove into some issues with FEMA and the different attempts by both the administration and Congress to make some changes to how FEMA operates, how money gets out the door and how eligibility is determined.

“There was a council put together to talk about what they want to do to make some changes to FEMA,” Bosworth continued. “And I've heard from a couple of emergency managers from across Michigan who are really concerned with what that implies. Are they going to get rid of FEMA? Is it going to be its own separate department? And I think at this point, they're not sure.”

MAC’s Samantha Gibson detailed the latest news on Medicaid:

“President Trump ran on this changing Medicaid and cutting costs. The way they've chosen to go about it is interesting, though. Instead of increasing the income eligibility threshold, what they are exploring is more or less an administrative burden.

“It’s not going to change who's eligible for Medicaid, but it's going to make it more difficult to access it. … It remains to be seen what the increased paperwork requirements will look like with Medicaid.”

“Unfortunately, that means that the state and the locals are going to have to do more fact-checking, more reporting, more administrative paperwork,” noted Bosworth. “And that's going to be pretty difficult for everybody to handle.”

“I think that's what we're seeing with the ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ too. It's going to end up being cost shifts down to states,” said host Stephan Currie. And then how does the state make up those shortfalls, if there are shortfalls, and then what? How does that impact the state budget? Then, how does that impact locals? The whole trickle-down effect, you have all these conversations going on at the same time, and they're all impacted by different decisions at different levels.”

With the recent alert from the U.S. Department of Education about involuntary collections on student loans, a new MAC Service Corp. sponsored program is the subject of a timely special episode of Podcast 83.

Savi is the leading social impact company helping student loan borrowers manage repayment and apply for federal programs. Programs like income-driven repayment and Public Service Loan Forgiveness are available to county employees, explained Savi’s Tony Raffa.

“Savi helps borrowers navigate their student debt. We do this mostly by working with both employers and borrowers, and bringing this through employers to the borrowers, whether it be residents of a county or the employees of that county,” he said.

“When we started in 2017, we looked at a great program that's available to all government employees, called Public Service Loan Forgiveness. Many of us were trying to get through that program ourselves and realizing how much of a challenge it was. In fact, in 2017, only 1 percent of applicants actually crossed the finish line of Public Service Loan Forgiveness.”

Michigan’s Oakland County is among the county adopters of this program, Raffa said. “We've been seeing some pretty amazing impact, and we've really been seeing this grow very rapidly through counties.”

Host: Stephan Currie

Guest: Amy Dolinky of MAC

Topic: MAC’s work with members on planning the use of opioid settlement dollars is the theme of a special episode of Podcast 83 this week.

Host Stephan Currie interviewed Amy Dolinky, MAC’s technical adviser on opioid settlement planning, about the association’s cutting-edge work in the field and how MAC is adapting to counties’ changing informational needs.

“We are still offering our existing individualized technical assistance to county governments on their opioid settlement funds,” Dolinky said. “What's changed is really that we went from supporting counties mostly in planning efforts, and now many counties are spending or in the process of executing contracts with grantees or vendors. So, we're really kind of transitioning to looking more at assessing the impact of the dollars, how folks are reporting and monitoring and considerations around transparency as well.

“Last year, MAC was able to work with Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health to adapt MAC’s guidance on transparency, to create the national guidance on transparency related to settlements, or one of the quick guides that we've seen come out to really support counties in their efforts related to these funds,” she added.

“We're also involved in the National Association of Counties’ (NACo) Opioid Solutions Leadership Network … and we've been able to participate and present in (Washington, D.C.) on the work that we're doing to help other associations provide support to their members.”

“Yes, because really, we're one of the unique associations that's providing the service?” Currie asked. “Can you talk a little bit about that, what the outlook is at other state associations or other states across the country and maybe what some of the goals of this NACo program are?”

“So, specifically, the three states associations that presented at this conference were North Carolina, Kentucky and Michigan. It's important for the other states to see our three distinct and unique models for providing these supports, to understand that these services don't have to be provided within a specific framework,” Dolinky replied. “Based on the reporting requirements in that state, based on funding for positions like mine and based on the ways in which the statewide associations are working with both local government and state government can really impact the supports that are provided. We were able to highlight three distinct models for how those services can be done, whether that's an individual providing the support or a team providing that support to members can really make a difference. And there's a lot of other considerations in this work that we were able to talk to the group about as well.”

Host: Stephan Currie

Guests: Deena Bosworth, Jimmy Johnson and Samantha Gibson of MAC

Topics: A decline in financial estimates for Michigan’s fiscal 2026 and the potential effects on county initiatives led off a wide-ranging episode of MAC’s Podcast 83 this week.

The Consensus Revenue Estimating Conference last week cut back its FY26 General Fund estimate to $15.11 billion, from $15.48 billion in its January report. This move is unlikely to speed up what already has been a slow budget process this year, said Governmental Affairs Director Deena Bosworth.

“The budgets are typically done July 1, but they don’t have to really be done until Oct. 1,” she noted. “So, the Senate is operating at a similar timeline as every other fiscal year, in that they want to get the budgets done by July 1. … The House, though, is waiting. They wanted to wait until this May revenue conference because they didn't know how much money they have to work with. So, they're kind of playing it close to the chest right now. Plus, I think we have to wait and see what happens at the federal level, and Medicaid cuts and other potential cuts coming down to the state. It makes for a strange budget year.”

Bosworth did note a new bit of good news in the Senate’s budget work, a “placeholder” that keeps open Lansing discussions on compensating counties for millions in losses due to tax foreclosure reimbursements.

“The estimates are somewhere around $83 million, so the Senate recognized that. Sen. Jonathan Lindsey led the charge, with Sens. John Cherry, Stephanie Chang and Sarah Anthony. … It opens that up for negotiations with the House as the budget moves forward throughout the process. It's not the whole $83 million that we think we're going to need, but at least it keeps that discussion going.”

On the mental health front, Jimmy Johnson reviewed why MAC has sent a letter to Gov. Gretchen Whitmer about local control of mental health services:

“The way the (Michigan Department of Health and Human Services) is proposing to bid out these PIHP contracts could potentially transfer the management of mental health to private for-profit or nonprofit health plans. By doing that again, we're taking away local control, local input …

“There are higher administrative costs potentially that could come out of this (move),” he added. “There was a study that came out and these private health plans average about 15 percent overhead, compared to just 2 percent for the current PIHP system.”

Host Stephan Currie concluded this week’s episode with a report on a June 17 invitation to the White House for Michigan’s county board chairs:

“The Michigan State Leadership Day is coming up June 17. So, initially the invite is only going out to board chairs. So, if you did receive an email, you can respond to that,” he said. “There's a lot of personal information they require if you are going to RSVP. So, know that going into it, because there's security as you're being invited to the White House.”

Host: Stephan Currie

Guest: Michael Roof of the Michigan Association of County Veteran Counselors

Topic: How county offices assist Michigan’s approximately 600,000 veterans is the topic of a special episode of Podcast 83 this week.

Host Stephan Currie talks with Michael Roof of Grand Traverse County, president of the Michigan Association of County Veteran Counselors (MACVC) on what he and his colleagues do each day.

“Out of the 83 counties, there's 79 counties that have a county department of veterans affairs. Some of us are general fund funded, and some are millage funded,” Roof said.

“Within those 79 counties, our duty is to help veterans and their dependents get and apply for any VA state or local benefits. That's the basic bottom line,” Roof added. “That means VA benefits, widow benefits, financial assistance, burial assistance. We help them anytime they come to our office.”

“Just to be clear,” Currie responded, “there's the Department of Military and Veterans Affairs at the state you're separate from them, right?”

“Yes … those are state agencies that are tasked with basically being a referral source, of getting it out and contacting veterans,” Roof said.

“So, what is most common when a veteran comes into your office, what do you guys typically find that they need most?” Currie asked.

“Assistance and filing for disability benefits or financial assistance … When someone comes in, they have to prove that they're a veteran, first and foremost, with documentation. They must prove they are a resident of the county. And then we usually have them provide a paycheck stub for everybody in the household, two months of bank statements to show that they don't have an excessive amount of money to, you know, contribute to the emergency situation. And then we just kind of go through their expenses and have a conversation to find out what caused this situation and how we can help.”

Legislation to address a coming shortfall in county veteran service efforts was a focus of this week’s episode of Podcast 83, whose ranks were expanded with the return of a familiar face.

“The Veterans Service Grant Fund has a shortfall of roughly $3.7 million,” noted Jimmy Johnson, governmental affairs specialist. “The veterans affairs department has really been taking a lot of heat on this. And this is not a partisan issue. This has been bipartisan. And luckily, we have a very great champion in the House, Rep. Julie Rogers, who introduced House Bill 4423.

“This is an appropriation from the General Fund for $3.7 million. … We are really feeling good about the chances of this hurrying up and passing with broad, bipartisan support. … And what makes me feel really good about this is that the chair of (the key) committee is also one of the sponsors on it.”

Rejoining the Podcast 83 team is Samantha Gibson, who has returned to MAC in the role of governmental affairs specialist after assisting with the recent transition in Washington, D.C.

“I am so excited to be back at MAC,” Gibson said. “I missed this office and all of our commissioners very much. So, I went to D.C. for a little bit, but I'm a Michigan girl at heart, so I had to come back. I'm just elated to be back with the counties.”

For details on the new shape of responsibilities among MAC’s governmental affairs team and other details, view the full episode, recorded on May 5, by clicking here or on the image above.

The progress of legislation to peel back controversial energy siting rules and boost public safety dollars took center stage in this week’s episode of Podcast 83.

“Let's talk a little bit about some legislation that was introduced last week … that has to do with zoning and siting of renewable energy facilities on and who does that,” said Executive Director Stephan Currie to open the episode.

“House Bills 4027 and 4028, introduced by Rep. Greg Alexander from Sanilac County, would repeal those sections that were enacted a couple of years ago that deal with the siting of large-scale wind and solar facilities,” explained Deena Bosworth, MAC’s governmental affairs director.

“Everybody probably remembers, if you're part of this, you have to have a compatible renewable energy ordinance, or the solar developers can just skip right over you and go to the Michigan Public Service Commission to site, their large-scale projects. So, these two bills were up in committee for testimony and voted out of last week, and they would just repeal all those sections,” Bosworth continued.

Check out the podcast for Bosworth’s assessment of the legislation’s ultimate prospects.

“The Public Safety and Violence Prevention Fund, something we've talked about few times now in the podcast and in some of our legislative updates, was passed out of the House,” said Currie. “Now it sits in the Senate, but there were some changes. Tell us about what those changes were.”

“Great news … House Bills 4260 and 4261 have new substitutes that passed out of the House with $115 million for (the fund), but it's broken out a little bit differently,” Bosworth reported. “So, they've got 2 percent of the first $75 million going to the Crime Victim’s Rights Fund. They’ve got 2% going to the Department of Health and Human Services for community-based violence prevention efforts, then $72 million for cities, villages and townships based on their crime rate and a whopping $40 million just for county sheriff's departments.”

In this week’s episode of Podcast 83, Executive Director Stephan Currie and Director of Governmental Affairs Deena Bosworth have a one-on-one chat about a busy number of days in Lansing last week on:

Public Safety Trust Fund legislation: House Bills 4260-61 in their current form have commendable points, said Bosworth, including $28 million aimed specifically at county sheriff departments.

Road funding hearing: “There was great testimony and good questions by the Senate Appropriations Committee members,” said Bosworth. “In addition to the House Republican testimony on their road plan, we also heard from the Citizens Research Council on a new policy paper that they issued where they said they don't know if we necessarily need any more money. We just need to reallocate the funds and spend them better.”

“So why would the Senate take testimony on a House Republican plan when the Democrats control the Senate,” Currie asked.

“I think they wanted to poke holes in it,” Bosworth replied. “Frankly, I really do. I think that they're focused on getting together their own plan with the Governor's Office and how they want to tackle the road issue.”

Renewable energy siting legislation: “House Bills 4027-28 are up for hearing this week in the House Energy Committee, and they amend that clean and renewable energy and energy reduction act that went through (in 2023),” Bosworth said. “MAC remained opposed to that as it was going through the process, because it really stripped local units of government, of local control, of the siting of these large-scale wind and solar facilities.

“So, these bills (would repeal) the majority of that statute: all that Michigan Public Service Commission authority to site these large-scale wind and solar facilities; the standards that have to be written … it really gets rid of all of that. …

“That would be great if we went back to more local control, so the locals had more of a say in what was going into their own communities,” Bosworth continued. “But I highly doubt this is going to go anywhere in the Senate. It might. It may end up opening up the act for some of the fixes that are needed, but I don't think it's going to be really high up on their priority list.”

MAC’s Podcast 83 team returns after the spring legislative break to catch up members on activities at the 2025 Legislative Conference and the continuing wrangle over veteran service grant funding.

“So, last week, we had our conference on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday,” noted host Stephan Currie. “So, Deena (Bosworth) and Jimmy (Johnson), give me one of your highlights.”

“The legislative panel was great,” Bosworth said. “I thought (moderator Kyle Melinn of MIRS News Service) did a nice job there. We didn't get a ton of answers from our legislators, but we did have a good discussion on road funding; on what they think they might be able to get done.

“That was quite a lively debate about whether they thought they were going to get the budget done. You know, there was one very optimistic member that said by June 1, and I don't know if I'm buying that, but it was the dark cloud around a lot of the policy issues they talked about too, you know,” Bosworth added. “What does this budget really look like? And if we're anticipating cuts from the federal government, how are we going to fund the roads? Is there really the money there for the House Republican road package? … A lot of debate and a lot of uncertainty on it.”

“This was my first conference,” said Johnson. “So it was just very interesting being able to meet a lot of our members … With each pod, we had lively discussion, and a lot of people had some really insightful follow-ups.”

Pivoting to the ongoing issue with funding for county veteran grants for fiscal 2026, Johnson explained, “So there's a lot of issues that are taking place there. … Luckily, we have Rep. Julie Rogers. She’s an Appropriations member, and she had been talking about the need to fix this. She's currently working with us and looking for different avenues to where we can backfill that funding.”

“And what's, what would the dollar figure be?” Currie asked.

“It's $3.6 million,” Johnson replied.

“OK, so that's not a ton of money,” Currie said. “I mean, that should even be in a supplemental; it should be fairly easy to get done to keep counties whole. But like you said, we'll stay tuned. And luckily, this is a bipartisan thing. You know people on both sides were hearing from members who are equally upset. So, I think that this is going to be one of those things that everybody can work together on.”

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.”