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$28-Million Spending Bill For Flint Heads To Snyder's Desk

MPRN

(MPRN-Lansing) State lawmakers have unanimously approved $28 million to help aid the drinking water contamination crisis in Flint. 

House Bill 5220 now goes to Gov. Rick Snyder, who requested the emergency spending bill last week during his State of the State Address. Lawmakers say the money will only be enough to address immediate needs, such as bottled water, filters, health screenings, and unpaid water bills.

“We need to make sure that we start doing the assessment and the healthcare needs right away,”

said state Senate Democratic Leader Jim Ananich (D-Flint).

“And we need to make sure that the administration gets this money to where it needs to be as soon as possible. And then we’ll start working on the long-term.”

The Senate added language to track how the money is spent. It instructs the state auditor general’s office to audit the use of the money at least every six months.

Another amendment adopted in committee this week provides funding meant to guarantee every Flint child age 0-3 can get a free developmental screening paid for by the state. State Rep. Sheldon Neeley (D-Flint) says the next step is to pay for long-term needs like replacing lead water lines.

“For the governor’s office to make sure that we have a good, fair amount of our next budget appropriated to fixing the long-term problems inside the city of Flint,”

said Neeley. Gov. Snyder is expected to ask lawmakers for more money for Flint during his budget address next month.

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