(Source: MIRS.news, Published 07/13/23) The finalized Fiscal Year 2023 budget includes approximately $3.7 billion for projects first seen in the conference committee recommendation, which House Republican Spokesperson Jeremiah WARD said was a departure from what Appropriations Chair Angela Witwer (D-Lansing) told the press and public in the days prior.
Ward referenced a list compiled with the help of the House Fiscal Agency that included new conference committee projects within nearly every department’s budget, including the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (MDARD), the Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy (EGLE), the Department of Technology, Management and Budget (DTMB), the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) and the Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity (LEO).
The total spending within the omnibus budget, or “big bus” on new conference projects was calculated at approximately $1.8 billion, while the school aid omnibus, or “school bus” contained $1.9 billion in new projects, for a total $3.7 billion.
But Ward said the nearly 100 new projects are far from what the public and Republicans were bargaining for when Witwer said pieces of the finalized budget would be taken from the executive, House and Senate recommendations.
He referenced a June 27 scrum Witwer had with the press, the day before conference committees were set to meet, where she explained that conference reports would take elements from all three existing budgets.
Witwer said the conference reports will represent "a meshing" of the budgets presented by Gov Whitmer and those approved by the House and Senate. "You've seen everything that's going to end up in the budget," she said. mibgt mileg
— Paul Egan (@paulegan4) June 27, 2023
“You've seen everything that's going to end up in the budget,” she was reported as saying by The Detroit Free Press's Paul EGAN.
Ward called the statement a “$4 billion whopper Appropriations Chair Witwer just told.
"Burger King wishes they could sell a whopper that costly,” he said.
Witwer did not respond to a request for comment.
Some of the larger projects that were first seen in the 2023 conference report included:
- A $286.8 million General Fund deposit into the Make it in Michigan Competitiveness Fund, intended to leverage funding opportunities made available from recent federal legislation, including the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), the CHIPS and Science Act and the Inflation Reduction Act.
- $279 million for a Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic expansion within the DHHS budget.
- $121.2 million within the LEO budget from the General Fund for 68 community enhancement grants, and another $39.3 million for 11 housing grants.
- $40 million in the LEO budget from the General Fund for Lansing redevelopment projects, including the direct costs of creating affordable housing or other corridor improvements.
- $40 million from the General Fund for development costs of a city campus plan for Lansing, including the modernization of the municipal administration campus.
- $96.1 million for 11 health care grants, and $66.2 million for 14 economic development grants within the LEO budget.
- $55 million within the EGLE budget authorized from the Cleanup and Redevelopment Fund to expand the remediation and redevelopment of non-petroleum contaminated sites.
- $15 million within the EGLE budget to address inflation on previously appropriated water projects.
- $10 million from the General Government budget allocated to the Department of Attorney General’s office to assist prosecutors in reducing the backlog of criminal gun cases in Detroit and Wayne County, with $3 million to Detroit and $7 million to Wayne County.
- $40 million to construct a dorm within the Michigan School for the Deaf.
