State Budget Proposal Unveiled by Governor Snyder

Rick Snyder on Wednesday proposed spending hundreds of millions more dollars to address Flint’s water crisis and to update infrastructure, including lead water pipes, in the city and across the state.

Under Snyder’s proposal, MI would appropriate $195 million to provide health, nutritional, educational, water bill payment, and infrastructure aid to Flint on top of the $37 million already approved.

“If I knew something bad was going on… and I just want to turn my blind eye, that could be a problem”, said Flood, a former Wayne County assistant prosecutor who spoke at a news conference with the Republican attorney general and investigators.

Flint Mayor Karen Weaver also said this week that $55 million of the funds would be used for a “fast start” plan to replace lead pipes in Flint, which are responsible for contaminating the water supply.

While on the campaign trail and even during interviews and private speaking engagements, Clinton has referred frequently to the challenges facing the residents of the lead-poisoned city – a once bustling factory town long in decline that in addition to widespread poverty and unprecedented unemployment now faces a state-declared man-made emergency because of undrinkable tap water. Snyder said the state must assume every child in the city has been exposed to lead.

Flood is also acknowledging that the investigation could find that the deaths and any subsequent cases of illness may turn out to be the result of “honest mistakes” by the state, but I rather doubt that the public is in much of a mood to hear that. Budget director John Roberts said his recommended amount for pipe replacement is a starting point and could grow once a full analysis is done and all the underground service lines are found in the city of almost 100,000 people.

A Virginia Tech expert who first raised public concerns about lead in Flint’s water is dismissing a city official’s email suggesting that anti-corrosive phosphates weren’t added to the Flint River because of worries that the chemicals would promote bacterial growth.

State environmental and health officials say they are boosting the level of data collected as well as the services offered to Flint residents affected by lead-tainted drinking water. “While it’s clear that the state created this man-made crisis, the federal government has in its capacity to help”.

Back in Flint, a broken water main had placed parts of the city under a boil-water notice Tuesday and Wednesday.

“We’ve got some big things that we’ve got to so, but because we’ve taken care of our finances, and done a better job with budgeting over the last four or five years, we can take on the big things and get ’em done”. Tawaab says the Governor’s no-show does not send the right message to the children of Flint. “Congress must act without delay to help Flint families get the immediate and long-term resources they need to recover”. “This year we did over 3 million pounds”.