Michigan's GOP House Speaker and Mayor of Detroit push for expanded public safety funding
A new public safety trust fund will reduce needless violence around the state of Michigan, the Republican state House Speaker and the Mayor of Detroit, a longtime Democrat who is running for higher office as an independent, declared alongside leaders in law enforcement Monday. However, both officials say the state legislature will have to put politics aside to get it done.
Michigan House Speaker Matt Hall (R-Richland Township) has mandated that as soon as the House returns next week from a break, getting bills for a state Public Safety and Violence Prevention Fund over to the Senate by the end of April is the highest priority for the chamber.
The fund would dedicate $75 million in the state budget and millions more in sales tax revenue to fund public safety in local communities across the state, allowing police departments to hire more officers and invest in community violence intervention programs.
Law enforcement officials from various cities and counties participated in a roundtable discussion Monday in Detroit on different needs in their communities and how they'd be better equipped to address them with the fund. And as the partisanly split Michigan legislature in the coming months will hammer out the details of the next state budget, Hall said this investment in crime reduction is paramount to the state.
'Listening today to our chiefs of police, if we get them the resources that they need, they're ready to hire more officers, they're ready to buy the equipment, and they're ready to patrol the streets and to ensure that we bring our violent crime rates down,' Hall said.
For many years, it's been rare to see a Republican Party leader in Detroit, Mayor of Detroit Mike Duggan said, but having Hall in the city, eager to recognize it as an asset to be invested in, shows a turn in the tides of underinvestment in Detroit, which historically has the highest crime rate in the state.
Duggan has caught vitriol from Democrats as a 'fox in the henhouse' for shifting off his Democrat label in favor of running as an independent candidate for the 2026 election for governor, a move that is expected to split votes with the Democratic candidate on the ballot.
But Duggan said Monday he's had enough of politics holding up progress in Lansing and he's eager to see the Public Safety and Violence Prevention Fund, which had bipartisan support last legislative session, get across the finish line with even more funding this session, despite concerns that the Democratic-led Senate may hold up the bills in order to negotiate for their policy priorities with the House.
'…Senate Democrats voted for this without an add-on bill the last vote of the session in December. All you do is vote the same way you voted the last time. So hopefully the games are over and we'll get this done,' Duggan said.
There will be metrics for effectiveness in the utilization of the fund's dollars, Hall said. Rather than focusing singularly on communities with high crime rates, the funds will be distributed and as communities utilize what they're given, the allocation will be adjusted for those municipalities that create results in public safety.
It's not always areas recognized for high crime rates that find themselves in need of public safety investment, Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard said, noting the swift and robust response needed for a mass shooting at a splash pad in Rochester Hills, which is known for low crime rates.
'Everyone deserves a safe summer': Michigan officials respond to recent mass shootings
Duggan and Detroit Police Chief Todd Bettison noted how effective community violence intervention programs have been in Detroit, with Duggan saying that amid a string of deadly shootings last summer at block parties, participants in those programs were instrumental in deterring violence ways and limiting the need for arrests.
'This Public Safety Trust Fund will make a tremendous difference. It will allow chiefs of police in various cities to be able to fund their initiatives to hire more officers, which I will do, and be able to invest in mental health and community initiatives such as violence intervention, which we know will reduce this crime,' Bettison said.
Michigan's Senate ends its own break for the spring this week and though leadership from that chamber has remained quiet on the subject of the fund, their Democratic colleagues who are pushing for the legislation in the House are urging lawmakers to swiftly take up the bills.
Public safety is an every Michigander issue, Rep. Alabas Farhat (D-Dearborn) said. While there is plenty of talk in Lansing about the previous session and issues that divide the legislative chambers, Farhat said it's time to take a step outside the rhetoric, 'commit', and get policies through that benefit all Michiganders.
'The longer we wait, the more likely homicides and people will die. It's that simple. We give the folks that are in this room the money they need… they're going to disrupt the crime,' Farhat said. 'This is an issue that impacts every Michigander, whether you live in a blue district or a red district, whether sheriffs a Democrat or Republican, no matter where you live, you're touched by this issue. So just get it done. Take the politics out of it. Get it done.'
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