Governor Rick Snyder wants to put more than $370 million toward things like clean water, infrastructure, and Child Protective Services.
Snyder also wants to put tens of millions of dollars toward curbing PFAS contamination. PFAS chemicals are an emerging contaminant that have popped up in groundwater, drinking water and surface water across the state.
James Clift is the policy director for the Michigan Environmental Council. He says the new money won’t clean up every PFAS site in the state.
“It would continue to give the state robust funding so they can find places where PFAS is present and where they could take steps to minimize public exposure,” he says.
Clift says if passed, this is probably enough money for the state to keep up its current efforts to curb PFAS. He calls it a great start.
There’s also a controversial item in Snyder's plan. About four and a half million dollars would be put toward a new plan to replace a section of the controversial Line 5 pipeline under the Straits of Mackinac. The line is owned by Enbridge Energy – and Snyder recently announced plans to construct a new section of pipeline that Enbridge would pay for.
Kurt Weiss is with the Department of Technology, Management and Budget.
“Enbridge is still on the hook for the deal that we have with them for the operational cost of building and construction and all that. This is really sort of the project management and making sure that we’re holding Enbridge accountable,” he says.
Weiss says the money would be used for things like oversight of Enbridge, mapping, and legal services.
Editor's note: Enbridge is one of Michigan Radio's corporate sponsors.
