When it comes to Michigan’s Macomb County, an important part of President Donald J. Trump’s Michigan election victory, the President’s new budget could cost Macomb County government nearly $30 million according to county officials.
For context, last month the White House released a $1.1 trillion budget proposal. The proposal shifts dollars toward defense spending to the tune of $54 billion, but that money comes out of major cuts to a number of departments and the services they provide.
Macomb County released a full report here but let’s go through the high-level points as far as annual cuts, according to Steve Gold, director of Macomb County Health and Community Services:
- A loss of $5 million provided through Housing and Urban Development to Macomb Community Action for programs that provide assistance to individuals and families in need. Some examples include funding cuts to emergency housing assistance, local communities for road repair, maintenance of recreational centers in eligible neighborhoods, deferred loans available for needed housing repairs and the county’s weatherization program.
- Nearly $2 million less for the Macomb/St. Clair Workforce Development Board through the elimination of the Senior Community Services Employment Program and a 21 percent reduction in programs that train or retrain people for work.
- More than $1.5 million reduction in federal FEMA Homeland Security support for the Department of Emergency Management & Communications.
- Nearly $500,000 less to the Health Department for programs that offer nutritional support to women, infants and children as well as water quality testing at Macomb County’s public beaches.
- Nearly $17 million in cuts to Macomb County Community Mental Health through the rollback of the Healthy Michigan Plan.
- $3.4 million for the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative
- $200,000 for Michigan State University Extension services, elimination of the Americorps program which provides staffing for grass roots organizations, as well as funding for the Anton Art Center.
Although there may be some offsets as Macomb County is home to 600 defense contractors of various sizes, County Executive Mark Hackel says it’s responsible to budget for money you can count on.
“We are under a new administration and need to prepare to make changes as the federal budget is adjusted,” said Macomb County Executive Mark A. Hackel. “Our three-year budget forecasting process is predicated on anticipated revenue from known federal sources. If that is going to change, we need to be ready to act accordingly.”
Macomb County voted for Republican Donald Trump with 53.6 percent of the vote in 2016. Democrat Hillary Clinton had 42.1 percent, and Libertarian Gary Johnson had 3.1 percent.
