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CHEERS: BUS
MONEYThe Michigan Legislature heard the citizen call for better public transit and responded in July with a $7.85 million increase in annual funding to local bus systems — an amount 2.5 times higher than Governor John Engler had proposed. The Legislature also approved $136,500 to study commuter rail between Lansing and Detroit, a financial commitment that leverages another $1 million from the federal government. In addition, lawmakers supported extending special transit services to people with disabilities statewide.
The votes were gratifying to members of the Michigan Transportation and Land Use Coalition, who worked for nearly three years with lawmakers and other leaders for such a victory. A project of the Michigan Land Use Institute and the Michigan Environmental Council, the coalition has grown to more than 30 groups representing hundreds of thousands of members.
“We earned this through the strength of our ideas and our persistence,” said Kelly Thayer of the Michigan Land Use Institute.
CHEERS: CITIZENS
UPEND STATE PLAN TO BURN TIRESGrassroots groups in Cadillac and several other northern Michigan communities are winning their battles to keep air up north free of fumes and fallout from scrap tire burning.
Last March the Department of Environmental Quality did a complete about-face and turned down a Cadillac utility company’s application to burn 20,000 tons of tires annually. The DEQ took this surprising stand after some 650 Cadillac-area residents attended a public hearing and denounced the utility’s plan to use tires for fuel without installing pollution-fighting equipment.
The same day the DEQ also denied an application by a utility in Hillman, Michigan, to increase the amount of tires it burns for fuel.
In both cases, the DEQ finally ruled that the Clean Air Act requires plant managers to install scrubbers and other air pollution control equipment to protect the environment and public health. Cadillac Area Citizens for Clean Air and other organizations had long advocated the same position, but the state DEQ initially rejected scrubbers as too costly for the utilities.
Citizen groups oppose tire incineration because of large quantities of toxic materials that escape into the air. Since 1992 the DEQ has granted tire-burning permits to four electric plants in northern Michigan.
JEERS: OIL AND
GAS TRICKThe Great Lakes drilling debate is producing odd and embarrassing moments for some of Michigan’s leading politicians.
For instance, the city council in Grand Haven, which lies along Lake Michigan, passed an ordinance in mid-June to ban directional drilling from the shoreline within city boundaries. Republican state Senator Leon Stille, who represents the city, promptly retaliated on the oil industry’s behalf by proposing a bill that would prevent cities that ban directional drilling from receiving money from the Natural Resources Trust Fund.
The trust fund is a state-managed account of revenues from oil and gas royalties that go to purchasing open space and recreational lands. Newspaper editorialists condemned Rep. Stille’s proposal, noting he is a staunch conservative who campaigned on the Republican principle of upholding the authority of “local control.”
Rep. Stille reversed his position by late July, however, when he joined Lt. Governor Dick Posthumus at a news conference in Grand Haven to call for a ban on Great Lakes drilling. The two prominent Republican leaders distanced themselves from Governor John Engler, who announced plans earlier this year to lift a 1997 ban on the state’s practice of leasing land for directional drilling from the shoreline. Read more about the political implications of Great Lakes drilling here.
JEERS: FARM LEADER
GUTS FARM FUNDINGMichigan’s main office for farmland preservation leadership and assistance found itself on the budgetary butchering block in June when a joint House and Senate conference committee cut all of its state funding.
Republican Senator George McManus, a cherry farmer from Traverse City, is a senior member of that conference committee and chairs a Senate committee that initiated the debilitating cut. Gary Henderson, Sen. McManus’ Chief of Staff, said it was purely a financial consideration in a lean budget year. But by withdrawing its annual contribution of $90,000 to the Rural Development Council, the Michigan Legislature has turned its back on one of the most effective efforts to relieve suburban pressure on rural areas and keep towns and cities alive with residents.
The Council is a leading organization in a broad, statewide network of local governments and public interest groups working together to plan for growth and apply such farmland preservation tools as purchase of development rights programs. The Council also has teamed up with more than 20 organizations to sponsor popular Ultimate Farmland Preservation tours along the East Coast, in which nearly 800 people have participated.
“I think maybe some people in state government figure (the Council is) too aggressive,” said farmer and Clinton County Commissioner Russel Baurle. “But we’re 20 to 30 years behind the East Coast. If we wait another 10 or 20 years, we’re going to be in trouble.”
The Council is now looking for other funding options to keep working on rural issues and farmland preservation despite the state’s lack of interest.
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