In their newest legislative update, MAC’s Podcast 83 team again took a deep dive into the no. 1 issue in Lansing right now: roads.

“Huge talk in Lansing is about an influx of dollars into the local road system,” said Deena Bosworth, MAC’s governmental affairs director. “The vast majority of the money that they're talking about right now (would be) going to county roads, then to city roads and, lastly, to (the Michigan Department of Transportation).

“It's about a $3 billion package,” Bosworth continued, “They've carved out a little bit of money for bridges. I want to say a little. We're talking hundreds of millions of dollars, but money for bridges, money for county road systems, money for city road systems and then some money for actually township roads, too, so that they don't necessarily have to come up with a big match on the design part of the projects, where county roads are or where the county is responsible for the roads.”

MAC testified in support of the package in a House committee on Tuesday, Bosworth noted, joining such groups as the Michigan Municipal League and the County Road Association in support.

“(W)e're slightly concerned about what some of this decrease in General Fund (to finance the road investment) will mean later down the road, but again, you can't really look a gift horse in the mouth with your $1.4 billion additional every year going into the county road system,” she said.

In other news, Jimmy Johnson gave an update on work for a permanent fix for trial court funding: “(The Legislature) created the Trial Court Funding Act of 2024, which is requiring the Supreme Court Administrative Office, under the direction and supervision of the Supreme Court, to analyze and determine these certain costs and revenues that trial courts are working on. So that sunset right now and for them to have that report completed and presented to everyone is going to be May 1, 2026.”

As part of this work, Johnson said, is a Funding Distribution Team: “Now this group is going to be charged with recommending a plan to establish the Trial Court Fund, and that's going to be designed to centralize all the generated revenue from the trial courts.

“Their most recent update was that they held a vote on which functions currently receive money from court assessments, and what should be considered court operations and therefore continue to receive money from court assessments via the Trial Court Fund. They were able to reach a consensus, it says, on two-thirds of the votes. Now, again, we don't know exactly what those are. We're basically getting kind of like a high level ‘this is what we're discussing.’”

A Republican road funding proposal that could mean a whopping $1.44 billion in new county road dollars was the focus of this week’s episode of Podcast 83.

“If (the House GOP plan) goes through, it would mean a significant influx of dollars into the county road system,” said Deena Bosworth, MAC’s governmental affairs director.

“What the bills basically do is they allocate the gas tax, the tax on that you pay at the gas pump, and take the sales tax and turn that into a gas tax, then dedicate all of that revenue to the roads,” she explained.

“Counties will get about $340 million of that revenue to go toward their roads,” Bosworth said. “But, in addition to that, they're also talking about taking General Fund dollars and switching around some business taxes, finding some savings elsewhere and then putting an additional $1.1 billion into the county road system, which is a huge windfall.”

Of course, there’s a potential catch: “The only thing that we're might be concerned about is the hit that it's going to take on the state's General Fund,” Bosworth noted. “Counties are reliant on a lot of General Fund appropriations: our revenue sharing, our court funding or what goes to public health departments. ... So, we'll have to wait and see … if the state's going to really be able to balance the budget, still maintain all of those priorities and do this huge influx into the roads.”

Also in the episode:

Bosworth noted the need for counties to keep wary eye on state budget politics this year after passage of an “essentials” budget in the Michigan House that would cut into revenue sharing: “It's definitely not what we want to see … on revenue sharing, because what they did was they take that $30 million that we were getting in those adjusted taxable value payments for revenue sharing. … In fiscal year 25, it's $30 million they did not include that in their budget (for fiscal 2026). And then they took the base revenue sharing amount, which we were getting $261 million of, and dropped that down to $256 million … This is a long budget process, and we know the Senate was not happy with what came over. So, I think it just is more setting the stage, doing the infighting, before we get actually down to figuring out what the real budget is going to be.”

Governmental Affairs Specialist Jimmy Johnson discussed MAC’s activities at the 2025 National Association of Counties’ Legislative Conference in Washington, D.C.: “Sen. (Gary) Peters (D-Michigan) was very gracious with his time (at a MAC-arranged briefing). And one big thing that he touched on was the Selfridge Air Base and how important that is,” Johnson said.

Could 2025 bring a major infrastructure investment and a burst of bipartisanship in Lansing? MAC’s Podcast 83 team divines the tea leaves inside of Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s 2025 State of the State speech in their newest episode.

“I thought it was her best speech to date,” said Deena Bosworth. “It was a different tone. It … sounded like a leader. … This one, she had reached out across the aisle, talked a ton about bipartisanship and getting things done.”

On getting action on roads:

“Both the governor and (House Speaker Matt Hall) have talked about removing the sales tax on gasoline, devoting that money to roads as part of their plans,” said host Stephan Currie. “Haven't heard much about what happens to those? How do you backfill those dollars? Because the sales tax on gasoline goes to local governments, in the form of constitutional revenue sharing; it goes to schools. … Anytime sales tax gets removed from something, there is an indirect concern on our part because of the statutory revenue side of things. And as we're talking about Revenue Sharing Trust Fund and solidifying those dollars, there is an indirect impact there.

“That's why, I think those road funding discussions and our role in being part of that, not only advocating for increased road funding at the local level, but what happens when that sales tax gets cut? Right?”

Counties have new rules to contend with on sick time for employees, plus they may face accounting changes on state funding for indigent defense, explained MAC’s Podcast 83 team in its newest episode this week.

Beating a Feb. 21 deadline, the Legislature adopted substantial changes to state law on minimum wage and sick time rules. MAC’s Deena Bosworth explained the big news for counties is on sick time:

“A lot of (the sick time) debate was centered around the accrual method. How do they earn it? Who gets how many hours? What does it look like if we also offer vacation pay?

“Larger employers ― so every county ― have to give their employees 72 hours of paid sick time every year. Now, you can opt to front load it, so you can give them 72 hours right now, at the beginning of the year, and they can use it. But then they can't carry it over, and you're not obligated to pay it out,” Bosworth said.

“Or you can use the accrual method, which is, you earn one hour for every 30 hours worked, but then you will have the obligation of allowing carry forward and may end up paying it out at the end of the year. But it does give a lot more flexibility, especially for those employers and counties who combine paid time off and vacation time together.”

Meanwhile, the Legislature has begun work on bills that could alter how counties receive funds to provide indigent defense in local trial courts.

“(This legislation) is going to expand the Michigan Indigent Defense Commission (MIDC),” said MAC’s new governmental affairs specialist, Jimmy Johnson. “In particular, it's going to be requiring that they include indigent youth. …

“Another aspect of this legislation is that it would change the disbursement the counties are seeing right now through the MIDC. So, if you're not familiar with it, there is a 50 percent payment, then a 25 percent and an additional 25 percent to get them to the 100,” he added. “What this bill would do is it would give them a 40 percent disbursement and then three subsequent 20 percent payments. … (W)e want to see that same disbursement stay in place of the 50 percent and then the two 25 percent amounts, just to ensure that our counties know exactly how the money is going to be coming in, and they're not going to have to make any changes.”

Podcast host Stephan Currie closed this week’s episode with a preview of MAC’s Legislative Conference, set for April 7-9 in Lansing:

“We have a great line up there. We've got the governor somewhat confirmed as a speaker. … We're going to have the executive director of National Association of Counties, Matt Chase, talking about what's happening in Washington, D.C. … We will have some discussion on road funding and how far a dollar actually goes now in fixing our roads. And we've invited the Legislative Quadrant (top leaders) to come speak.”

In the newest episode of Podcast 83, MAC discusses the Legislature's work on sick time and minimum wage requirements.

The House passed House Bills 4001-02, which amend the Earned Sick Time Act and the minimum wage law, last week and have been referred to the Senate Committee on Regulatory Affairs.

The Senate passed Senate Bill 8 last week, which amends the Minimum Wage Law, and was referred to the House Committee on Protecting Michigan Employees and Small Businesses. However, the Senate did not vote on Senate Bill 15, which amends the Earned Sick Time Act.

Deena Bosworth explained, "What really affects counties is the Earned Sick Time Act ... nobody knows how to implement this yet. They don't know what those numbers are going to be."

The governor’s plans for the fiscal 2026 budget and for Michigan roads are the focus of the newest episode of Podcast 83.

“(The governor) proposed a 4 percent increase in revenue sharing (for FY26), but really it wasn't a 4 percent increase in revenue sharing,” explained Deena Bosworth, MAC’s governmental affairs director. “It was a 3.6 percent increase in the overall amount that we got last year in revenue sharing.

“As a reminder for our members, there was an additional $30 million put into county revenue sharing last year and that went out in a different formula than what we originally were receiving in county revenue sharing. So, there was the base of the $261 million and then an additional $30 million that went out to counties based on an inverse relationship that they have to their taxable value compared to the rest of the state.

“Well, the governor separated those lines, those dollars, out in her budget recommendation this year, and said, we're only going to give you a 4 percent increase on that $261 million base, and we're just going to give you that $30 million that you got last year, but we're not giving any increases on it. … We’re slightly disappointed in that, but also a little disappointed in the fact that she didn't include the Revenue Sharing Trust Fund, which she didn't include last year, either.”

In the rest of the budget, Bosworth said, “It was really pretty much flat funding for anything that had anything to do with counties. I mean, there was no increase in any, any of our line items: not county jail reimbursement, not prosecutors, not in the Child Care Fund.”

Later in the episode, Bosworth and host Stephan Currie, MAC executive director, reviewed the governor’s new road proposal, which calls for $3 billion from a variety of sources.

“Some of the proposed new taxes that are being proposed would be Facebook ads, Twitter ads, things like that would be taxed. Amazon delivery fees,” said Currie. “You could see a delivery fee tax that goes towards the roads, covering Uber, Uber Eats, those kind of food deliveries, taxi services, limo services. … In addition, there's apparently a loophole, which I didn't know about this until reading about it a little bit today, in the marijuana tax, where there's not all the marijuana that's being sold is being properly taxed at the point of sale.”

Clarity remains in limited supply under the Capitol Dome in Lansing in early 2025, MAC’s Podcast 83 team reports in a new episode this week.

While there was important action on a key legislative priority for MAC in the Michigan House of Representatives last week, that chamber has still not finished work on routine organizational issues that occur at the beginning of a new term.

“What have we heard about committee assignments at this point or not heard in some cases?” asked host Stephan Currie.

“I think we've heard less than we would like to hear,” replied Deena Bosworth. “The House, every two years, has to redo all of its committee assignments. They choose who's going to be the chair of those committees and who's going to be serving on them. … So, we're waiting on Speaker Matt Hall to make announcements for all of the committees. … He's had a couple of press conferences, made some announcements, which we're happy about. You've got Rep. Ann Bollin out of Livingston County to chair the House Appropriations Committee. The minority vice chair on that (committee) is going to be Rep. Alabas Farhat from Wayne County, whom we've worked with quite a bit in the past as well. And luckily for us, we have Sarah Lightner, former county commissioner of Jackson County, who is going to chair the House Judiciary Committee. …

“In most sessions, there's a lot of committees have announced at this point. So far, they've just been trickling in a little bit kind of one a week,” Bosworth said, though she added she expected much more action on committees this week.

Where the House has been more definitive, Bosworth said, is on much-needed changes to Michigan law on the minimum wage and sick time rules. A bipartisan majority advanced House Bills 4001-02 to the Senate, as MAC and others wanted.

However, “What the Senate plans to do with it? We're not quite sure,” Bosworth said. “The Senate has their own version, amending the earned sick time act and the minimum wage, which is not necessarily as business friendly. It's a little more labor friendly than the House version. I think they're going to meet somewhere in the middle. Now, are they going to get this done prior to the Feb. 21 deadline, when everything goes into effect? Or not? That remains to be seen.”

A new special episode of Podcast 83 features an expert on the Michigan Open Meetings Act (OMA) and the mistakes that county boards so often make in trying to comply with it.

Matt Nordfjord, managing partner of the firm of CST Municipal Law, recently led briefings on the OMA at MAC’s New Commissioner School on the trends he has seen in county compliance.

“One of the big takeaways I got from that is that we seem to have some additional education that would be warranted here on what is a public body subject to the Open Meetings Act,” Nordfjord told host Stephan Currie. “There's been a couple of (court) cases within the last year that have to do with whether a committee, a subcommittee, a work group or even an individual meets the definition of a public body.”

Nor is this a new issue, Nordfjord said. “I was looking back through my notes since 1998 and there was a case that talked about this. And when a committee shifts from being purely advisory … there's a three-step process. Step 1: It doesn't matter what you're calling it. … question is, is it a public body? And what we look to there is, did the Board of Commissioners delegate a governmental function to that individual or entity that they otherwise would be responsible for?”

In the end, Nordfjord said, a county’s wisest course is, if necessary, repeat the actions of subcommittees in a full board meeting in order to comply with OMA.

“You know, that's one of the remedies for violations of the Open Meetings Act is re-enactment. So, it still may work functionally and be more efficient to have that entire discussion, even if you've had it behind closed doors first, again in the open session, so that you don't have to deal with a potential challenge from an aggrieved party.”

Additional detail on these topics will appear in the February 2025 edition of Michigan Counties, MAC’s bimonthly magazine. The magazine is mailed directly to all county commissioners across Michigan.

NOTE: MAC emphasizes that this discussion does not constitute legal advice. Any member seeking such guidance can contact Nordfjord through the firm’s offices at 517-372-9000.

Traditions are being broken right and left at the State Capitol in 2025 and it’s unclear how counties will fare from the results, MAC’s Podcast 83 Team reports in its newest episode.

“In the incoming term, there will not be a house Local Government Committee, which is something to my understanding that hasn't been done before,” explained Samantha Gibson. “Typically, most of our issues do go through the house Local Government Committee. Obviously, you know, we spend a lot of time in judiciary and criminal justice and transportation and whatnot, but the house Local Government Committee has been a long-standing platform for local governments to use in the House, so it'll be different this term kind of running around all over the place to all these different committees.”

“I'm more than a little bit concerned,” added Deena Bosworth. “There are several issues that always went through the Local Government Committee that don't really belong in some of the other policy committees. If you take issues like Open Meetings Act or zoning issues, local control issues are important. And we've seen Local Government Committee members who usually have local government background, and they understand the plight that local governments go through.”

New House Speaker Matt Hall (R-Kalamazoo) also has charted a new path on approved legislation from 2024, so far refusing to send over bills for Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s signature to make them law. Among the stalled measures is House Bill 6058, which alters what counties have to do on employee health insurance.

“We were not happy with how it was drafted, how it went through the process and how it ultimately ended up,” Bosworth said. “The problem is that it doesn't really make a whole lot of sense.

“I guess we'll wait and see on that,” Bosworth added. “See what the new speaker does with those bills, if he's compelled to, at some point, present them to the governor, and we'll see what the governor does, right? Like I said, I've never seen this before, but it's fun to watch a lot of things we haven't seen before.”

Host: Stephan Currie

Guests: Deena Bosworth, Madeline Fata and Samantha Gibson of MAC

Topics: MAC’s Podcast 83 team took a moment Monday during a chaotic lame duck legislative session to review the state of play of county issues heading in Lansing in the final days of 2024.

“In order to get bills through the legislative process, they have to be in each legislative chamber for five days,” said Deena Bosworth. “We saw last week the Senate they started at 10 o'clock on Thursday morning, and they adjourned sometime around 5:30 a.m. on Friday. And they did that so that they could pass out all their ‘first house’ bills, so the Senate bills … would be in the House for five days before the House could act on them. … We think legislative session is going to be done on the 18th, or on the 19th. They needed to get those across to the (other) chamber. The House was in on Friday morning. They started at 9 a.m. and adjourned sometime around 10:30 p.m. just to try and move all their bills over (to the other chamber). That's the fact of it. But wow, was it a whirlwind.”

On key issues, the MAC team reported:

Revenue Sharing Trust Fund: Bipartisan legislation is still stuck in a Senate committee, with both Senate Majority Leader Winnie Brinks (D-Kent) and Gov. Gretchen Whitmer showing no appetite to help extract it. On Dec. 16, MAC and others sent a letter to every senator reiterating the need for this reform.

Minimum Staffing: Senate Bill 1167 is now in the House and, though amended, still presents a direct threat to county finances. “I do want to stress the importance to our membership that you talk to your legislators, particularly those of you that have House Democrats as your representatives, talk to them and let them know how detrimental Senate Bill 1167 will be to you all,” said Samantha Gibson.

Statewide Septic Code: “There was a new draft of the statewide septic code brought before the Senate Natural Resources Committee and this version is significantly better than any version we've seen to date. It is extremely watered down,” explained Madeline Fata.

County Apportionment: Noting again that MAC was not consulted by the sponsor (Rep. Phil Skaggs, D-Kent) prior to filing the legislation to revamp commissioner districts, Deena Bosworth said, “We're trying to get some experts to explain to us what that's going to look like or how that process would work.”