Grants meant to help build a new fire station in Oshtemo Township and a new senior center in Kalamazoo were among those blocked by the Republican-led Michigan House Appropriations Committee on Dec. 10.
In a statement to WMUK, Republican State House Speaker Matt Hall of Richland Township defended the cancellations.
“Lansing insiders and Democrat politicians shoved so much waste, fraud, and abuse in their previous budgets, House Republicans had to hit the pause button," Hall said.
But local leaders say their projects are anything but wasteful or fraudulent.
New Senior Center
The old Ecumenical Senior Center building had already been demolished when Executive Director Tim Barnes heard the news that Ecumenical's $1 million grant was caught up in the recent cancellations.
He said the center had already been reimbursed about a fifth of its grant, which it received through the Michigan Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity.
"We have collected about $200,000 of it, but it looks like we have about $800,000 that may be in jeopardy."
In his statement to WMUK, Speaker Hall said the Republican-led committee made the right move.
"We needed to stop the millions in pork spending and secret slush funds pushed by lobbyists and the radical left special interests. Taxpayers deserve to know someone is protecting their hard-earned dollars.”
However, Barnes questioned Speaker Hall's characterization of the grants.
"The $800,000 was going to construction materials and services. So, there's no — it's not a slush fund. We're not making money on this. This is basically to cover what the project was meant to cover."
Despite the cancellation, he said the project will go forward, even if Ecumenical has to increase bank financing.
“We are moving forward and if I have to provide financing, we will do that. So, we are not going to delay this project," Barnes said.
"It's taken us so long to get to where we are that we want to get something in place for our seniors.”
Barnes added that the Center hopes to begin construction next month.
New Oshtemo Fire Station
Oshtemo Township was also set to receive a $1 million reimbursement grant from the state.
The grant would have assisted with the construction of a new fire station, which township supervisor Cheri Bell said is needed to replace a small station built over two decades ago.
"We've gone from a primarily volunteer or paid, on-call fire service to, now we have a fully-staffed professional fire service that is employed by the township full-time. It's changed dramatically in the last 25, 30 years," Bell said.
"And with that change, came more people to the township, which needs more fire trucks and more firemen or fire people and it's just not large enough."
And while the grant would not have covered the entire cost of the project, Bell said it was still important.
“It would have allowed us, in a very meaningful way, to move past the point of dreaming about a new fire station to doing that facilities assessment and then for real beginning to look for property, the right place to put that location.”
Like Barnes, Supervisor Bell took issue with Speaker Hall's claims of "waste, fraud and abuse."
“Mr. Hall's description of how he views these district grants is inflammatory, I think, and state funding is really needed. The cost have gone up on everything so dramatically that you need your partners at the state level to come in and help.”
She added that losing the grant won’t kill the project but it’s expected to slow it down.
Kalamazoo Township also received a state grant to construct a new fire station, but Township Superintendent Tracie Moored said they’ve already received the funds and don’t believe they will be taken back.
Michael Symonds reports for WMUK through the Report for America national service program.
