By DEBRA HAIGHT
BCR Correspondent
ST. JOSEPH, MI – The new Michigan state budget holds mainly good news for Berrien County, County Commissioners learned last week. The state legislature finalized the budget in late September in time to avoid a state government shutdown.
Commissioners heard from Mike Krombeen of Midwest Strategy Group, the county’s lobby firm in Lansing. Krombeen had also spoken to the county board in mid-September when it looked like legislative leaders and Gov. Gretchen Whitmer were at an impasse when it came to the budget. This time, Krombeen gave some of the highlights of the new budget and what it will mean for Berrien County.
“I’m relieved we have a state budget,” he told commissioners. “It passed at 4 a.m. last Friday. It was a little bit past the deadline, but they did a short term funding gap. The budget deal had bipartisan support and there was no single line item veto in it. So, despite the rocky path it took to get there, it was at least supported on both sides of the aisle.”
Krombeen said that while he and his colleagues are still digging through all the budget documents, he could safely say that the biggest winner in the budget was roads. The state has a new local roads fund with additional monies coming from a new 24 percent tax on marijuana wholesalers.
“The legislature did a sales tax for gas tax swap off of gasoline so that is a revenue neutral to consumers,” he said. “All of the taxes you pay at the pump will go to roads as opposed to the sales tax on gasoline which went to locals and schools.”
“There were some revenue sharing cuts as a part of that, but only to cities, townships and villages,” he added. “County revenue sharing will be flat year over year; there’s a new local roads fund and a new tax on marijuana wholesalers, which will lead to more investment in the roads…at the statewide, county, city and village levels.”
Krombeen said there is some public safety money in the new budget, with Berrien County expected to get about $147,000. He told commissioners to think of that money as one-time funding at this point even though there are bills out there for a new public safety trust fund.
He noted that the budget bill also include funding for Department of Natural Resources grants that had been ready to go since early 2025. He said the DNR part of the new budget will fund projects at Riverfront Park in Buchanan, beach improvements in Lincoln Township, boat access at Boyle Lake, and the Marquette Greenway project.
Other budget items he mentioned included an increase in money for public transit with between $48 million and $98 million set aside statewide as well as $17 million for prosecutors in 15 counties with most violent crime rates. He said he believes that Berrien County is one of the counties getting one-time funds to reduce case loads.
Krombeen spoke a little more about revenue sharing. Although county revenue sharing isn’t going down, he said local municipalities may be seeing a “haircut.” He pointed out that some local municipalities might see a little more money for public safety and roads; at the same time their overall revenue sharing might be going down.
He told commissioners that the state budget is about $1.5 billion less than last year’s budget, noting that “a good chunk” of that is from changes at the federal level and the loss of one-time dollars that showed up post Covid.
He said the state budget includes items that have down from the federal Big Beautiful Bill such as no taxes on tips or overtime and cuts in Medicaid. The new state budget has other cuts as well, such as cuts to a number of state programs with earmarks and one-time grants gone for placemaking and other programs.
Krombeen answered commissioners’ questions on a number of specific topics including the likelihood that lawsuits filed by marijuana wholesalers against the tax increase will be successful.
He noted that marijuana businesses filed lawsuits last week that argued that it was a constitutional question and that such a change in the amount of taxes required a supermajority vote in the legislature and not just a simple majority. He said that if the marijuana businesses win, there will be a “large hole” in the state budget.