PODCAST 83

Special Episode on County Veteran Services – Released on 5/13/25
Host: Stephan Currie
Guest: Michael Roof of the Michigan Association of County Veteran Counselors
Topic: How county offices assist Michigan’s approximately 600,000 veterans is the topic of a special episode of Podcast 83 this week.

Host Stephan Currie talks with Michael Roof of Grand Traverse County, president of the Michigan Association of County Veteran Counselors (MACVC) on what he and his colleagues do each day.

“Out of the 83 counties, there’s 79 counties that have a county department of veterans affairs. Some of us are general fund funded, and some are millage funded,” Roof said.

“Within those 79 counties, our duty is to help veterans and their dependents get and apply for any VA state or local benefits. That’s the basic bottom line,” Roof added. “That means VA benefits, widow benefits, financial assistance, burial assistance. We help them anytime they come to our office.”

“Just to be clear,” Currie responded, “there’s the Department of Military and Veterans Affairs at the state you’re separate from them, right?”

“Yes … those are state agencies that are tasked with basically being a referral source, of getting it out and contacting veterans,” Roof said.

“So, what is most common when a veteran comes into your office, what do you guys typically find that they need most?” Currie asked.

“Assistance and filing for disability benefits or financial assistance … When someone comes in, they have to prove that they’re a veteran, first and foremost, with documentation. They must prove they are a resident of the county. And then we usually have them provide a paycheck stub for everybody in the household, two months of bank statements to show that they don’t have an excessive amount of money to, you know, contribute to the emergency situation. And then we just kind of go through their expenses and have a conversation to find out what caused this situation and how we can help.”

To learn more, click here for the full episode, originally taped in late April.

Episode 112 – Released on 5/6/25
Host: Deena Bosworth
Guests: Jimmy Johnson and Samantha Gibson of MAC
Topics: Legislation to address a coming shortfall in county veteran service efforts was a focus of this week’s episode of Podcast 83, whose ranks were expanded with the return of a familiar face.

“The Veterans Service Grant Fund has a shortfall of roughly $3.7 million,” noted Jimmy Johnson, governmental affairs specialist. “The veterans affairs department has really been taking a lot of heat on this. And this is not a partisan issue. This has been bipartisan. And luckily, we have a very great champion in the House, Rep. Julie Rogers, who introduced House Bill 4423.

“This is an appropriation from the General Fund for $3.7 million. … We are really feeling good about the chances of this hurrying up and passing with broad, bipartisan support. … And what makes me feel really good about this is that the chair of (the key) committee is also one of the sponsors on it.”

Rejoining the Podcast 83 team is Samantha Gibson, who has returned to MAC in the role of governmental affairs specialist after assisting with the recent transition in Washington, D.C.

“I am so excited to be back at MAC,” Gibson said. “I missed this office and all of our commissioners very much. So, I went to D.C. for a little bit, but I’m a Michigan girl at heart, so I had to come back. I’m just elated to be back with the counties.”

For details on the new shape of responsibilities among MAC’s governmental affairs team and other details, view the full episode, recorded on May 5, by clicking here.

Episode 111 – Released on 4/30/25
Host: Stephan Currie
Guests: Deena Bosworth and Jimmy Johnson of MAC
Topics: The progress of legislation to peel back controversial energy siting rules and boost public safety dollars took center stage in this week’s episode of Podcast 83.

“Let’s talk a little bit about some legislation that was introduced last week … that has to do with zoning and siting of renewable energy facilities on and who does that,” said Executive Director Stephan Currie to open the episode.

“House Bills 4027 and 4028, introduced by Rep. Greg Alexander from Sanilac County, would repeal those sections that were enacted a couple of years ago that deal with the siting of large-scale wind and solar facilities,” explained Deena Bosworth, MAC’s governmental affairs director.

“Everybody probably remembers, if you’re part of this, you have to have a compatible renewable energy ordinance, or the solar developers can just skip right over you and go to the Michigan Public Service Commission to site, their large-scale projects. So, these two bills were up in committee for testimony and voted out of last week, and they would just repeal all those sections,” Bosworth continued.

Check out the video for Bosworth’s assessment of the legislation’s ultimate prospects.

“The Public Safety and Violence Prevention Fund, something we’ve talked about few times now in the podcast and in some of our legislative updates, was passed out of the House,” said Currie. “Now it sits in the Senate, but there were some changes. Tell us about what those changes were.”

“Great news … House Bills 4260 and 4261 have new substitutes that passed out of the House with $115 million for (the fund), but it’s broken out a little bit differently,” Bosworth reported. “So, they’ve got 2 percent of the first $75 million going to the Crime Victim’s Rights Fund. They’ve got 2 percent going to the Department of Health and Human Services for community-based violence prevention efforts, then $72 million for cities, villages and townships based on their crime rate and a whopping $40 million just for county sheriff’s departments.

Episode 110 – Released on 4/22/25
Host: Stephan Currie
Guest: Deena Bosworth of MAC
Topics: In this week’s episode of Podcast 83, Executive Director Stephan Currie and Director of Governmental Affairs Deena Bosworth have a one-on-one chat about a busy number of days in Lansing last week on:

Public Safety Trust Fund legislation: House Bills 4260-61 in their current form have commendable points, said Bosworth, including $28 million aimed specifically at county sheriff departments.

Road funding hearing: “There was great testimony and good questions by the Senate Appropriations Committee members,” said Bosworth. “In addition to the House Republican testimony on their road plan, we also heard from the Citizens Research Council on a new policy paper that they issued where they said they don’t know if we necessarily need any more money. We just need to reallocate the funds and spend them better.”

“So why would the Senate take testimony on a House Republican plan when the Democrats control the Senate,” Currie asked.

“I think they wanted to poke holes in it,” Bosworth replied. “Frankly, I really do. I think that they’re focused on getting together their own plan with the Governor’s Office and how they want to tackle the road issue.”

Renewable energy siting legislation: “House Bills 4027-28 are up for hearing this week in the House Energy Committee, and they amend that clean and renewable energy and energy reduction act that went through (in 2023),” Bosworth said. “MAC remained opposed to that as it was going through the process, because it really stripped local units of government, of local control, of the siting of these large-scale wind and solar facilities.

“So, these bills (would repeal) the majority of that statute: all that Michigan Public Service Commission authority to site these large-scale wind and solar facilities; the standards that have to be written … it really gets rid of all of that. …

“That would be great if we went back to more local control, so the locals had more of a say in what was going into their own communities,” Bosworth continued. “But I highly doubt this is going to go anywhere in the Senate. It might. It may end up opening up the act for some of the fixes that are needed, but I don’t think it’s going to be really high up on their priority list.”

Episode 109 – Released on 4/15/25
Host: Stephan Currie
Guests: Deena Bosworth and Jimmy Johnson of MAC
Topics: MAC’s Podcast 83 team returns after the spring legislative break to catch up members on activities at the 2025 Legislative Conference and the continuing wrangle over veteran service grant funding.

“So, last week, we had our conference on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday,” noted host Stephan Currie. “So, Deena (Bosworth) and Jimmy (Johnson), give me one of your highlights.”

“The legislative panel was great,” Bosworth said. “I thought (moderator Kyle Melinn of MIRS News Service) did a nice job there. We didn’t get a ton of answers from our legislators, but we did have a good discussion on road funding; on what they think they might be able to get done.

“That was quite a lively debate about whether they thought they were going to get the budget done. You know, there was one very optimistic member that said by June 1, and I don’t know if I’m buying that, but it was the dark cloud around a lot of the policy issues they talked about too, you know,” Bosworth added. “What does this budget really look like? And if we’re anticipating cuts from the federal government, how are we going to fund the roads? Is there really the money there for the House Republican road package? … A lot of debate and a lot of uncertainty on it.”

“This was my first conference,” said Johnson. “So it was just very interesting being able to meet a lot of our members … With each pod, we had lively discussion, and a lot of people had some really insightful follow-ups.”

Pivoting to the ongoing issue with funding for county veteran grants for fiscal 2025, Johnson explained, “So there’s a lot of issues that are taking place there. … Luckily, we have Rep. Julie Rogers. She’s an Appropriations member, and she had been talking about the need to fix this. She’s currently working with us and looking for different avenues to where we can backfill that funding.”

“And what’s, what would the dollar figure be?” Currie asked.

“It’s $3.6 million,” Johnson replied.

“OK, so that’s not a ton of money,” Currie said. “I mean, that should even be in a supplemental; it should be fairly easy to get done to keep counties whole. But like you said, we’ll stay tuned. And luckily, this is a bipartisan thing. You know people on both sides were hearing from members who are equally upset. So, I think that this is going to be one of those things that everybody can work together on.”

Episode 108 – Released on 3/25/25
Host: Stephan Currie
Guest: Deena Bosworth of MAC
Topics: In this week’s episode, MAC’s Podcast 83 discusses the progress of a House GOP roads plan that is a “huge winner” for counties and a problem that has arisen in funding county veteran services grants.

“Road funding had some developments last week,” noted host Stephan Currie.

“The Michigan House of Representative passed out their road funding plan,” replied Deena Bosworth, MAC’s governmental affairs director. “That road funding plan is a huge winner for county road systems across the state.

“Looking at the estimates that were put out by the House Fiscal Agency on that distribution, it’s at least, at a minimum, a 97 percent increase in road funding for each county. …

“I will say we’re still waiting on a proposal by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer,” Bosworth added, “and we’re also waiting on a proposal from the Michigan Senate. I anticipate that it will be a combined proposal, and it will be similar to what the House passed out, but not exactly. I anticipate the Senate and the governor to recommend some revenue increases so that we’re not looking at such a potential decrease in the state’s General Fund.”

By contrast, the cash is not flowing quickly to counties trying to serve military veterans.

“Something we’ve kind of heard about from some counties recently is about veteran grants,” Currie said. “Some of these grants that may have been incorrectly calculated by the state and causing some problems locally?”

“These are veterans grants for the fiscal year 25, which started last Oct. 1,” Bosworth replied. “What we understand is the Department of Military and Veterans Affairs last October said, ‘Hey, counties, thanks for applying for your veteran service grants. Everything’s great. This is how much money you’re going to get.’

“Come to find out, on Feb.18, the department had to do a recalculation of the funds … They notify counties, and some of them are getting a 60 percent to 70 percent decrease in the amount,” Bosworth said.

“They had a hearing on it last week in the Appropriations Subcommittee on Military and Veterans Affairs and legislators were not happy at all. After that committee meeting, I got a phone call from Rep. Julie Rogers (D-Kalamazoo) … and she let me know that she’s absolutely looking for an additional appropriation to try and keep counties whole for fiscal year 25 so she’s out there trying to figure out how to make this right.”

Episode 107 – Released on 3/19/25
Host: Stephan Currie
Guests: Deena Bosworth and Jimmy Johnson of MAC
Topics: In their newest legislative update, MAC’s Podcast 83 team again took a deep dive into the no. 1 issue in Lansing right now: roads.

“Huge talk in Lansing is about an influx of dollars into the local road system,” said Deena Bosworth, MAC’s governmental affairs director. “The vast majority of the money that they’re talking about right now (would be) going to county roads, then to city roads and, lastly, to (the Michigan Department of Transportation).

“It’s about a $3 billion package,” Bosworth continued, “They’ve carved out a little bit of money for bridges. I want to say a little. We’re talking hundreds of millions of dollars, but money for bridges, money for county road systems, money for city road systems and then some money for actually township roads, too, so that they don’t necessarily have to come up with a big match on the design part of the projects, where county roads are or where the county is responsible for the roads.”

MAC testified in support of the package in a House committee on Tuesday, Bosworth noted, joining such groups as the Michigan Municipal League and the County Road Association in support.

“(W)e’re slightly concerned about what some of this decrease in General Fund (to finance the road investment) will mean later down the road, but again, you can’t really look a gift horse in the mouth with your $1.4 billion additional every year going into the county road system,” she said.

In other news, Jimmy Johnson gave an update on work for a permanent fix for trial court funding: “(The Legislature) created the Trial Court Funding Act of 2024, which is requiring the Supreme Court Administrative Office, under the direction and supervision of the Supreme Court, to analyze and determine these certain costs and revenues that trial courts are working on. So that sunset right now and for them to have that report completed and presented to everyone is going to be May 1, 2026.”

As part of this work, Johnson said, is a Funding Distribution Team: “Now this group is going to be charged with recommending a plan to establish the Trial Court Fund, and that’s going to be designed to centralize all the generated revenue from the trial courts.

“Their most recent update was that they held a vote on which functions currently receive money from court assessments, and what should be considered court operations and therefore continue to receive money from court assessments via the Trial Court Fund. They were able to reach a consensus, it says, on two-thirds of the votes. Now, again, we don’t know exactly what those are. We’re basically getting kind of like a high level ‘this is what we’re discussing.’”

Episode 106 – Released on 3/11/25
Host: Stephan Currie
Guests: Deena Bosworth and Jimmy Johnson of MAC
Topics: A Republican road funding proposal that could mean a whopping $1.44 billion in new county road dollars was the focus of this week’s episode of Podcast 83.

“If (the House GOP plan) goes through, it would mean a significant influx of dollars into the county road system,” said Deena Bosworth, MAC’s governmental affairs director.

“What the bills basically do is they allocate the gas tax, the tax on that you pay at the gas pump, and take the sales tax and turn that into a gas tax, then dedicate all of that revenue to the roads,” she explained.

“Counties will get about $340 million of that revenue to go toward their roads,” Bosworth said. “But, in addition to that, they’re also talking about taking General Fund dollars and switching around some business taxes, finding some savings elsewhere and then putting an additional $1.1 billion into the county road system, which is a huge windfall.”

Of course, there’s a potential catch: “The only thing that we’re might be concerned about is the hit that it’s going to take on the state’s General Fund,” Bosworth noted. “Counties are reliant on a lot of General Fund appropriations: our revenue sharing, our court funding or what goes to public health departments. … So, we’ll have to wait and see … if the state’s going to really be able to balance the budget, still maintain all of those priorities and do this huge influx into the roads.”

Also in the episode:

• Bosworth noted the need for counties to keep wary eye on state budget politics this year after passage of an “essentials” budget in the Michigan House that would cut into revenue sharing: “It’s definitely not what we want to see … on revenue sharing, because what they did was they take that $30 million that we were getting in those adjusted taxable value payments for revenue sharing. … In fiscal year 25, it’s $30 million they did not include that in their budget (for fiscal 2026). And then they took the base revenue sharing amount, which we were getting $261 million of, and dropped that down to $256 million … This is a long budget process, and we know the Senate was not happy with what came over. So, I think it just is more setting the stage, doing the infighting, before we get actually down to figuring out what the real budget is going to be.”
• Governmental Affairs Specialist Jimmy Johnson discussed MAC’s activities at the 2025 National Association of Counties’ Legislative Conference in Washington, D.C.: “Sen. (Gary) Peters (D-Michigan) was very gracious with his time (at a MAC-arranged briefing). And one big thing that he touched on was the Selfridge Air Base and how important that is,” Johnson said.

Episode 105 – Released on 3/4/25
Host: Stephan Currie
Guests: Deena Bosworth and Jimmy Johnson of MAC
Topics: Could 2025 bring a major infrastructure investment and a burst of bipartisanship in Lansing? MAC’s Podcast 83 team divines the tea leaves inside of Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s 2025 State of the State speech in their newest episode.

“I thought it was her best speech to date,” said Deena Bosworth. “It was a different tone. It … sounded like a leader. … This one, she had reached out across the aisle, talked a ton about bipartisanship and getting things done.”

On getting action on roads:

“Both the governor and (House Speaker Matt Hall) have talked about removing the sales tax on gasoline, devoting that money to roads as part of their plans,” said host Stephan Currie. “Haven’t heard much about what happens to those? How do you backfill those dollars? Because the sales tax on gasoline goes to local governments, in the form of constitutional revenue sharing; it goes to schools. … Anytime sales tax gets removed from something, there is an indirect concern on our part because of the statutory revenue side of things. And as we’re talking about Revenue Sharing Trust Fund and solidifying those dollars, there is an indirect impact there.

“That’s why, I think those road funding discussions and our role in being part of that, not only advocating for increased road funding at the local level, but what happens when that sales tax gets cut? Right?”

Episode 104 – Released on 2/26/25
Host: Stephan Currie
Guests: Deena Bosworth and Jimmy Johnson of MAC
Topics: Counties have new rules to contend with on sick time for employees, plus they may face accounting changes on state funding for indigent defense, explained MAC’s Podcast 83 team in its newest episode this week.

Beating a Feb. 21 deadline, the Legislature adopted substantial changes to state law on minimum wage and sick time rules. MAC’s Deena Bosworth explained the big news for counties is on sick time:

“A lot of (the sick time) debate was centered around the accrual method. How do they earn it? Who gets how many hours? What does it look like if we also offer vacation pay?

“Larger employers ― so every county ― have to give their employees 72 hours of paid sick time every year. Now, you can opt to front load it, so you can give them 72 hours right now, at the beginning of the year, and they can use it. But then they can’t carry it over, and you’re not obligated to pay it out,” Bosworth said.

“Or you can use the accrual method, which is, you earn one hour for every 30 hours worked, but then you will have the obligation of allowing carry forward and may end up paying it out at the end of the year. But it does give a lot more flexibility, especially for those employers and counties who combine paid time off and vacation time together.”

Meanwhile, the Legislature has begun work on bills that could alter how counties receive funds to provide indigent defense in local trial courts.

“(This legislation) is going to expand the Michigan Indigent Defense Commission (MIDC),” said MAC’s new governmental affairs specialist, Jimmy Johnson. “In particular, it’s going to be requiring that they include indigent youth. …

“Another aspect of this legislation is that it would change the disbursement the counties are seeing right now through the MIDC. So, if you’re not familiar with it, there is a 50 percent payment, then a 25 percent and an additional 25 percent to get them to the 100,” he added. “What this bill would do is it would give them a 40 percent disbursement and then three subsequent 20 percent payments. … (W)e want to see that same disbursement stay in place of the 50 percent and then the two 25 percent amounts, just to ensure that our counties know exactly how the money is going to be coming in, and they’re not going to have to make any changes.”

Podcast host Stephan Currie closed this week’s episode with a preview of MAC’s Legislative Conference, set for April 7-9 in Lansing:

“We have a great line up there. We’ve got the governor somewhat confirmed as a speaker. … We’re going to have the executive director of National Association of Counties, Matt Chase, talking about what’s happening in Washington, D.C. … We will have some discussion on road funding and how far a dollar actually goes now in fixing our roads. And we’ve invited the Legislative Quadrant (top leaders) to come speak.”

Episode 103 – Released on 2/18/25
Host: Stephan Currie
Guests: Deena Bosworth and Jimmy Johnson of MAC
Topics: In the newest episode of Podcast 83, MAC discusses the Legislature’s work on sick time and minimum wage requirements.

The House passed House Bills 4001-02, which amend the Earned Sick Time Act and the minimum wage law, last week and have been referred to the Senate Committee on Regulatory Affairs.

The Senate passed Senate Bill 8 last week, which amends the Minimum Wage Law, and was referred to the House Committee on Protecting Michigan Employees and Small Businesses. However, the Senate did not vote on Senate Bill 15, which amends the Earned Sick Time Act.

Deena Bosworth explained, “What really affects counties is the Earned Sick Time Act … nobody knows how to implement this yet. They don’t know what those numbers are going to be.”

Episode 102 – Released on 2/11/25
Host: Stephan Currie
Guest: Deena Bosworth of MAC
Topics: The governor’s plans for the fiscal 2026 budget and for Michigan roads are the focus of the newest episode of Podcast 83.

“(The governor) proposed a 4 percent increase in revenue sharing (for FY26), but really it wasn’t a 4 percent increase in revenue sharing,” explained Deena Bosworth, MAC’s governmental affairs director. “It was a 3.6 percent increase in the overall amount that we got last year in revenue sharing.

“As a reminder for our members, there was an additional $30 million put into county revenue sharing last year and that went out in a different formula than what we originally were receiving in county revenue sharing. So, there was the base of the $261 million and then an additional $30 million that went out to counties based on an inverse relationship that they have to their taxable value compared to the rest of the state.

“Well, the governor separated those lines, those dollars, out in her budget recommendation this year, and said, we’re only going to give you a 4 percent increase on that $261 million base, and we’re just going to give you that $30 million that you got last year, but we’re not giving any increases on it. … We’re slightly disappointed in that, but also a little disappointed in the fact that she didn’t include the Revenue Sharing Trust Fund, which she didn’t include last year, either.”

In the rest of the budget, Bosworth said, “It was really pretty much flat funding for anything that had anything to do with counties. I mean, there was no increase in any, any of our line items: not county jail reimbursement, not prosecutors, not in the Child Care Fund.”

Later in the episode, Bosworth and host Stephan Currie, MAC executive director, reviewed the governor’s new road proposal, which calls for $3 billion from a variety of sources.

“Some of the proposed new taxes that are being proposed would be Facebook ads, Twitter ads, things like that would be taxed. Amazon delivery fees,” said Currie. “You could see a delivery fee tax that goes towards the roads, covering Uber, Uber Eats, those kind of food deliveries, taxi services, limo services. … In addition, there’s apparently a loophole, which I didn’t know about this until reading about it a little bit today, in the marijuana tax, where there’s not all the marijuana that’s being sold is being properly taxed at the point of sale.”