(Source: MIRS.news, Published 05/29/2024) (MACKINAC ISLAND) – Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said Wednesday that the Strategic Outreach and Attraction Reserve (SOAR) package presented by House Democrats this week has “a lot of promise to it,” a slightly more positive response than her previous reaction to the Senate’s amended SOAR package.
“We’re taking a serious look at it. I think that it's a genuine attempt to solve a number of problems,” Whitmer said. “. . . We're still diving in and looking at it, but I am glad to see legislation putting up a real solution on the table. It's great.”
House Speaker Joe Tate (D-Detroit) told MIRS Wednesday morning that the House’s package, which would extend the sunset on SOAR for 10 years and invest significant sums into transit, housing and place-making, is less of a response to the Senate’s changes and more of a “continuation of conversations.”
The proposal, spearheaded by Reps. Jason Morgan (D-Ann Arbor), Jason Hoskins (D-Southfield) and Mike McFall (D-Hazel Park), would revamp SOAR by extending the 2025 sunset on the fund through 2036, with $600 million annually going towards its continuation.
Those dollars would be broken down as follows:
- $250 million into the traditional economic development incentive program, which looks like SOAR right now, but that Morgan said would include more transparency about where funds are going, accountability for how they’re used and additional reporting requirements.
- $200 million in “transformational transit and mobility projects.” Morgan said the details on exactly what this will look like are still being worked out, but added that his vision is focusing funding on major projects, like light rail and rapid bus transit, that he described as “the really big stuff.
“We've never been able to do that because we basically piece everything out to make sure that everybody gets their little slice of the pie individually, rather than everyone getting the whole pie together in a thoughtful, strategic and long-term way,” he said.
Morgan said he never imagined being the “transit guy,” or the person focused so singularly on a topic, “but it is so clear that for (an) economic development strategy to work, we have to have housing and transit, so that people can afford to live in our communities and get to the jobs that we're creating.”
He said the transit piece is of particular excitement to him because it will provide greater opportunities to pull in federal dollars.
- $100 million into the state’s Housing and Community Development Fund (HCDF) administered by the state’s Housing Development Authority (MSHDA) to build more affordable housing across the state.
- $50 million to the Revitalization and Placemaking Fund (RAP), managed by the Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC) to support community projects, like those aimed at increasing childcare services and improving access to community college.
Rep. Jason Hoskins (D-Southfield), who said there will be a June hearing in his House Economic Development and Small Business Committee on the bills, called the legislation a “holistic, long-term commitment to growth and prosperity."
Whitmer said at a press event on the Grand Hotel porch on Wednesday that legislative leaders have all been focused on different pieces of what a holistic SOAR reform package looks like.
The Senate’s SOAR reform package, for example, also provides funding for “transformative community investments,” like housing, transit and childcare services, but does so by reallocating 50 percent of SOAR funding.
When the legislation initially moved out of the chamber with a last-minute substitute increasing the percentage reallocated, Whitmer said she didn’t sign off on it beforehand and the bills that passed the Senate in March have not yet moved through the House.
Tate said the Legislature's “wrinkle" has been around whether other complementary items are included in a SOAR package, and not the heart of SOAR itself.
The House proposal centered on transit is just a continuation of that, he said.
“I don’t think (it’s) necessarily a response, but it’s continuing the debate around having those ideas,” he said. “... It’s something we’ve been doing for the past year and a half… figuring out how to continue to be a competitive state.”
Morgan said the package is absolutely intended to build upon the work that strong leaders in the Senate have already begun.
When asked about the potential for bipartisan support that adding new transparency and accountability provisions could bring, Morgan said he's optimistic about that, as well.
“The only way that you can have any effective long-term economic development strategy is if it's bipartisan, and if we have a broad coalition of people (in) support,” he said. “Again, we have to get away from . . . the short-term fixes or pilots or programs that leave uncertainty for businesses. We have to get to this long-term plan and long-term vision that is comprehensive and holistic.”
Kerry Ebersole Singh, executive vice president and chief innovation officer of the Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC), said she’s grateful for this administration and the Legislature’s focus on economic development.
Some of the provisions in the package really aren’t much different from what the state has already been doing, Singh said, referencing state agencies coordinating to create more wraparound services. But she said she’s encouraged by the Legislature’s attention to it.
