The Michigan Senate passed several Detroit Regional Chamber priorities this week, advancing key economic development legislation, improvements to the Michigan Reconnect program, and protecting the Unemployment Insurance Trust Fund. The Michigan House Appropriations Committee utilized a rarely used tool to unilaterally eliminate specific work projects from the budget, with an estimated $644.9 million in cuts. 

The Senate passed Senate Bill 723 in a bipartisan fashion. This bill is a critical piece of legislation that significantly expands Michigan’s brownfield redevelopment program by increasing the total program’s tax capture cap from $1.6 billion to $3.5 billion, providing the necessary resources to support large-scale transformational projects. 

Why it matters: This expansion is vital for the Detroit Region, as it is expected to facilitate the massive redevelopment of the Renaissance Center in Detroit and the repurposing of Lakeside Mall in Macomb County. These sites have the potential to drive significant economic activity but require substantial investment to overcome redevelopment challenges.

The bill now moves to the House, where the Chamber will continue advocating for its passage to ensure these projects can proceed. 

The Senate also unanimously passed Senate Bill 700, which waives the repayment of unemployment benefits paid in error during the COVID-19 pandemic. The bill focuses on administrative errors made between February 2020 and September 2021, ensuring that claimants who received benefits through no fault of their own are not penalized for these errors. 

The Chamber thanks its members and business leaders who contacted their state senators on this issue last week, highlighting the issues SB 700 would have imposed on Michigan businesses. With this, the Chamber was able to negotiate key amendments and lead negotiations with legislators on Tuesday. Crucially, the final version of the bill preserves the Unemployment Insurance Trust Fund, ensuring that the cost of these waivers does not trigger a tax increase on Michigan employers. 

Lastly in the Senate, Legislators moved bills to expand the Michigan Reconnect program to include Michiganders aged 21 and older, instead of those 25 years old or older. The program aids “non-traditional” students who are returning to education, helping them receive a skill certificate or degree at no cost.

Why it matters: The expansion of this highly successful program will increase the number of degrees in Michigan and boost the state’s skilled workforce. 

In an unprecedented move, the Michigan House used a rarely used procedure to surgically remove specific work projects from the 2024-25 budget. A work project is a budget item that received funding from the previous fiscal year but has not spent the entire appropriation, requiring an extension into the next fiscal year. By law, both the Senate and the House have the ability to deny work project requests from Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. 

What was impacted: The House targeted several projects impacting the Region’s economy, including funding for Reconnect career navigators, Lake Michigan Circuit, the Office of Future Mobility Electrification, the Office of Global Michigan, the Michigan Innovation Fund, and the Make it in Michigan Competitiveness Fund.  

The Chamber will continue to advocate for funding in supplemental budget appropriations and in the full appropriations process for programs and funding that will benefit Michigan. 

After being at ease for nearly seven hours, the Michigan House Appropriations Committee voted to cut $644.9 million in work projects in a near party line vote. 
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Legislation that would boost the state’s transformational brownfield program recently passed the Senate with bipartisan support. As passed, SB 723 will increase the total amount of tax capture for eligible projects, expand what qualifies as a transformational brownfield plan, and add various restrictions and transparency measures for plans. Read more.

A Senate panel recently made changes to a bill package that would bring back a modified version of the Good Jobs for Michigan program, including language certifying that the jobs created under the program are new jobs. Read more.

Members of the Senate voted to relieve residents who received unemployment benefits they may have not been qualified for during the COVID-19 pandemic from having to pay the money back to the state. Read more.

The state’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was down by one-tenth of a percentage point to 5.1% in the month of September, according to the monthly report released by the Department of Technology, Management, and Budget. Read more.