LANSING — Northern Michigan communities missed out on millions of dollars in potential funding from this year’s state budget.
A library, a community college upgrade and multiple road projects are among the region’s funding requests that were denied by state lawmakers.
Outside of $19.8 million for Midland’s flood recovery, only a handful of Northern Michigan funding requests were granted in the final product.
Lawmakers requested close to $425 million in funding for projects or services that operate in the region — and less than $5 million in grants were approved, just over 1% of the region’s total ask.
Among other requests, the state declined to provide $35 million for a new youth treatment facility, $29 million for Ferris State University’s science facilities, and $20 million to help with an expansion of Cherry Capital Airport.
Lake City was denied $10 million to repair the M-66 and M-55 state highway. Mayor Craig Ardis says that he’s hopeful the funding will be provided sometime in the future.
“We were disappointed we did not get it, but we’re optimistic that we can keep pushing for it in the next go around on the legislative budget,” he said. “We will keep doing it every year until we get the money to fix our road, or we may have to shut the road down sometime — who knows?”
Northwestern Michigan College was denied an $8 million request for a new student services center.
The college says that the new facility would allow students to more easily navigate the support programs available to them.
“We’re disappointed not to receive the items’ funding, but we will continue to pursue sources of dollars to finance this very important project for our student success,” said Cari Noga, spokesperson for the college.
Some applicants say that their request was more of a moonshot than a lifeline.
Kalkaska County Public Library requested $5 million to help with the construction of a new building.
John Roberts, the library’s director, says it always seemed unlikely that the ask would be approved.
“We sort of expected that in this environment, infrastructure, buildings — especially public libraries — that’s a real long shot,” he said.
Roberts says that the new project has raised around a third of the funding it will need. Plans and renderings for the construction will come in the next few months, he says.