LOCAL

New Michigan budget includes $100K for poet laureate to travel, promote poetry in schools

Paul Egan - Detroit Free Press
The Petoskey News-Review

LANSING — In a $61.9-billion Michigan budget, is it time to set aside $100,000 for an official Michigan poet?

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said "yes" to that question in her state budget presentation Thursday.

Her proposal includes $100,000 for the Michigan Department of Education "to create and support a state poet laureate who will travel the state meeting with teachers and students to promote poetry, the spoken word, and literary arts in a generation of young students.

Efforts to have Michigan join many other states that have an official poet have waxed and waned in the Legislature for decades. Back in 2000, Livonia Republican state Sen. Thaddeus McCotter — later a congressman — introduced a bill to provide for the post, and suggested it might go to Michigan-born rocker Bob Seger.

But it still has not happened, despite the introduction in 2015 of another poet laureate bill by then state Rep. Sarah Roberts, a Democrat from St. Clair Shores.

According to U.S. Library of Congress records, Michigan last had a poet laureate in the 1950s. Edgar A. Guest was appointed in 1952 and served until his death, in 1959.

Here are 11 other items that were easy to miss in last week's state budget:

Looming lawsuits

The state may have to pay "hundreds of millions of dollars" in judgments and/or settlements related to pending lawsuits against the state, according to budget briefing papers.

The budget papers cited pending lawsuits related to the Flint drinking water crisis and the Michigan Unemployment Insurance Agency fiasco, in which tens of thousands of Michigan residents were falsely accused of unemployment insurance fraud. Also cited was a lawsuit involving alleged sexual abuse of juveniles formerly held in Michigan prisons for men. A settlement of that case was recently announced, though details were not released.

All the cited cases involve actions predating Jan. 1, 2019, when Gov. Gretchen Whitmer took office.

A new home for anti-bullying program

The budget shifts responsibility to the Michigan State Police for administration and outreach for a program intended to prevent school bullying and violence.

OK2Say is now housed in the Michigan Attorney General's Office with respect to those duties. Whitmer's budget would shift that role to the Michigan State Police, at what appears to be a reduced cost.

The budget removes from the AG $1.5 million in OK2Say funding, of which $1 million comes from the general fund, and adds to the MSP $906,000 in OK2Say funding, of which $436,400 comes from the general fund.

"We completely support this move," said Kelly Rossman-McKinney, a spokeswoman for Attorney General Dana Nessel.

The MSP already houses the Office of School Safety, and the move "will maximize efficiencies and resources for the program," Rossman-McKinney said. "MSP also handles the OK2SAY tip line, which receives thousands of tips a year.

Starting over on problem-plagued computer system

The budget provides $31.9 million over two years for a new Comprehensive Child Welfare Information System for the Department of Health and Human Services.

State officials told a federal judge in June they planned to scrap the existing system, which has cost state and federal taxpayers about $231 million over the past five years. The system's poor performance has been seen as a major obstacle in getting Michigan out from federal oversight related to its handling of child abuse and neglect cases.

Children's Rights, a New York-based group, sued in 2006, alleging maltreatment or neglect of children while in state foster care custody, a lack of basic medical and mental health services for children in foster care, and excessive lengths of stay in state custody, among other problems. The case was settled in 2008 with the appointment of a federal monitor and the state must now track and report on required reforms.

The budget recommends $20.6 million for a new, "modern cloud-based system" in the 2021 budget, plus another $11.3 million in a supplemental budget request for 2020. The project is to be completed in five phases between now and 2025.

It costs money to make money

In 2021, taxes paid on the sale of recreational marijuana are expected to send an extra $36.9 million to local governments, $43.1 million to the School Aid Fund, and another $43.1 million to help fix Michigan roads and bridges, according to budget documents.

But taking in and distributing that money also comes with a cost. For 2021, the budget proposes $50.3 million for marijuana regulation. That amount includes $20 million to support research related to medical conditions affecting military veterans and to prevent veterans' suicides.

Similarly, newly legalized sports betting and online gambling is expected to generate tens of millions of dollars in state revenues annually, once both are fully up an running, starting this year.

But the budget calls for an extra $5.5 million for the Michigan Gaming Control Board, which it says will need to hire regulation officers, auditors and analysts to oversee all that wagering.

And it costs money to spend money

The budget proposes a new Rebuilding Michigan Office of Accountability and Transparency to track the spending of the $3.5-billion bond program to fix major state highways and bridges, which Whitmer announced in her State of the State address in January.

The budget allocates $3 million to fund the new office for the next three years.

Cyber schools would take a hit

While recommending increased funding for K-12 schools, the budget proposes a $24-million cut to the foundation allowance for Michigan cyber schools, which are charter schools that operate online.

The cyber schools should get less funding per student because they enjoy "lower facility, maintenance, and transportation costs compared to brick and mortar schools," according to the budget documents.

Wiping out school lunch debt

The budget proposes $1 million to forgive school lunch debt rung up by Michigan K-12 students who participate in the federally assisted National School Lunch Program.

Support for Michigan National Guard spouses

In the Department of Military and Veterans, the budget proposes that tuition assistance now offered to members of the Michigan National Guard also be extended to their spouses.

According to the budget documents, the change is expected to be made at no additional cost. Instead, the expanded tuition assistance program will be funded through efficiencies identified in the existing $6.5-million program.

Refinancing student loan debt

In higher education, the budget proposes $10 million to establish the Michigan Student Loan Refinance Program, which will allow people to refinance up to $50,000 of student loan debt with a lower interest rate through the Michigan treasury

To qualify, debtors must have lived in Michigan at least 12 months and been making regular payments on their student loans for at least three years.

"A lot of details of the program would need to be worked out, including what the new low interest rate would be," said Ron Leix, a Treasury spokesman.

Pay more to look up driver records

In one of the few proposed tax or fee increases in the budget, the Michigan Secretary of State wants to charge higher fees to businesses that want to look up information about driving records and/or motor vehicle registrations.

The budget proposes a hike in the charge for "look-up fees" from $11 to $13.

That's expected to raise an extra $9.4 million.

A pay boost for state employees

The budget provides for an extra $121.7 million for state employees in 2021, based on pay increases that have already been negotiated.

State workers are scheduled to receive a 2% pay hike on Oct. 1, 2020, and a 1% increase on April 4, 2021.

The Michigan State Capitol is seen in Lansing.