LANSING – About $20 million for emergency dredging activities was approved on Wednesday to be included in a Natural Resources Trust Fund bill that otherwise authorizes spending for various Department of Natural Resources and parks and recreation projects across the state.

SB 233 currently includes $23.3 million in appropriations from the fund for 22 acquisition projects and 54 development projects. But because Governor Rick Snyder has sought to provide funding for emergency dredging operations across the state, the Senate Appropriations Committee also sought to include an amendment making appropriations for such operations.

The way the funding would be divvied up, though, sparked some debate among both Democrats and Republicans. Some members of the panel, including Sen. Howard Walker (R-Traverse City), expressed concern about the projects that had already been approved by the Waterways Commission getting the short end of the deal (Mr. Walker has at least three in his district alone). He called for using the Budget Stabilization Fund instead.

“Frankly I think what this would lead to are major delays in current waterways projects, which a lot of us have in our districts” Walker said of using waterways funding. I think it’s important to look to another source (of money) other than waterways funding.”

The Snyder administration has proposed $9.5 million coming from the Waterways Fund and then $10.5 million from the General Fund. Mr. Walker advocated that projects already approved for Waterways Fund grants could still happen while dredging activities did as well.

His amendment, though eventually defeated, was supported by Sen. John Moolenaar (R-Midland), Sen. Bruce Caswell (R-Hillsdale), and Sen. Glenn Anderson (D-Westland), who said they viewed keeping promises to local communities of greater importance.

But Sen. Roger Kahn (R-Saginaw Township), chair of the committee, did not support the amendment, as well-intentioned as he said it may have been.

“The majority of us felt that this wasn’t the time to be discussing removing of dollars from the Budget Stabilization Fund on our own, and we had the feeling this would be opposed by the administration and be opposed as well by the House,” Kahn said after the meeting.

He further explained that the amendment, as written, did not do anything to segregate the risk that would be faced when the bill got to the administration. The right language, for example, would allow the governor to veto just the added part. Instead, he would have to veto the whole bill, Kahn said.

And Sen. Goeff Hansen (R-Hart), chair of the Senate Outdoor Recreation and Tourism Committee that is largely in charge of any and all dredging bills, said the situation the state faces does not lend itself to finessing such issues.

“We’re in an emergency situation right now and there were some projects that were already let out that the harbors had already got the okay from the Waterways Fund for their projects. Those were brought back.” Hansen said after the meeting.

“Every single one of them was called by the Waterways Fund personally to say ‘You know, we’ve got an emergency. I’m afraid you’re going to have to drop back for a year. You’ll get your money next year. You’re the first ones, you’re going to get your money, but this year we have a situation that we have to make sure that we get this dredging done,'” he said. ” Because it doesn’t do any good really to put in bathhouses or bath docks or whatever without being able to get to them.”

A representative from the Parks and Recreation division of the department said there could be money leftover that would could go toward as many as nine projects, but Kahn said getting those projects queued up is also an issue that needed to be addressed.

With the bill reported from committee, Kahn estimated the bill would hit the Senate floor by the middle of next week.

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