Focus West Michigan
Focus West Michigan for 8-7-24
Today on Focus West Michigan, Grand Rapids Public Schools has received a grant for electric buses, big lots is closing stores in West Michigan, a recap from yesterday's elections, cranes Grand Rapids business brief, and more state and West Michigan news. For WGVU, I'm Joe Belecke, today is Wednesday, August 7, 2024. Focus West Michigan is brought to you by listeners like you, to support the show and everything we do visit WGVU news.org and click the donate button. Grand Rapids Public Schools has received a sizeable state grant subsidizing electric school buses. WGVU's David Limba has the details. The state of Michigan awarded the Grand Rapids School District $1.48 million from Michigan's Clean School Bus Grant Program to help the district implement electric school buses. GRPS is one of 29 school districts in the state to receive the grant. The funding is coupled with $5.2 million awarded to GRPS by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency this past May, which will go toward the purchase of electric school buses and the charging infrastructure to support those buses. According to Christopher Dean, Director of Innovation for Dean Transportation, a well-equipped electric school bus currently costs approximately $380,000, while the charging infrastructure can cost between $25,000 to $50,000. Transportation experts say investing in clean fuel vehicles will improve air quality and lower costs in the long run, especially considering Michigan transports 800,000 students on 17,000 buses each school year. Dean Transportation, who provides school bus transportation for many students in the GRPS District, assisted in securing both grants. The goal is to have the first electric school buses on the road and transporting GRPS students sometime in 2025. I'm David Limba. National retailer Big Lots is closing stores across the country, including some in West Michigan. WGVU's Dean Morrison reports, "In a federal filing in July, retail chain Big Lots announced it may close as many as 315 stores nationwide. That's more than 22 percent of its locations in the United States. Earlier this year, the company announced plans to close just 40 stores, but its website already lists 289 sites that are closing, including 11 in Michigan. Those on the list in West Michigan include Holland, Kentwood, and Big Rapids, along with cold water, Lansing, Ochemis, and others. The discount retail chain headquartered in Columbus, Ohio cited ongoing financial struggles in its filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Michigan shows 11 of its 46 stores closing, no date for those shutdowns has yet been announced. I'm Dean Morrison. A new hotel tax that supports the development of entertainment and convention projects in Kent County has passed, WGVU's David Limba has more on how voters responded to the proposal. The proposal, known as Destination Kent, passed with 53.6 percent of voters, or just over 65,900 total in favor of a 3 percent increase to the hotel in size tax. This will raise the tax from 5 to 8 percent. 46.4 percent of voters, or just over 56,900, were against the proposal. Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer signed a bill into law in April, making the tax increase possible, allowing Kent County and other government bodies to ask voters to increase hotel taxes to help fund sports and entertainment projects, like the Eckershir Amphitheater, a proposed soccer stadium, and a possible aquarium. Grand Rapids Mayor Rosalyn Bliss spoke on the importance of the passage of the proposal. If we're going to continue to move forward in our city and have positive momentum, we need to have spaces and places like this where people come together and they can have these shared experiences. Grand Rapids Chamber of Commerce Vice President of Government Affairs Joshua Langer also expressed his support for the tax increase. There's a lot of great work still ahead, but it really is a next big leap for regional growth here in Kent County. The Kent County Commission will vote on increasing the lodging tax and how best to allocate it at a future Board of Commissioners meeting. I'm David Limbaugh. Kent County voters passed the Ready by Five Millage, which funds early child development programs. WGVU's D. Morrison reports on what comes next. The goal of the Ready by Five early childhood millage is to fund programs that improve kindergarten readiness and overall well-being for children under age five. Kent County voters approved the renewal by more than 20,000 votes for six years at .25 mills, or about $37 per year for a $300,000 home. Jennifer Headley Norman is the president of First Steps Kent and says despite the disruption of the pandemic, the first six years showed success. Improving health outcomes for mothers, improving birth weight for babies. We had more parents feeling confident about the skills. And we also were seeing some early evidence that the investments that we're making towards kindergarten readiness are going to be realized in the next few rounds of data collection. She and others hope data collected in the next six years will lead to growth and more funding. Tania Ingram is co-chair of the Ready by Five Steering Committee and a parent using the services. I think that it's important that people know that these programs are more than just play groups. They're more than just handing out books at doctors visit these programs are giving parents the confidence and reassurance that their children are developmentally on track. The millage is estimated to raise about $8.8 million in the first year to fund programming through 18 agencies with more than 30 programs. I'm Dee Morrison. While the official tally for yesterday's primary election remains in progress, state officials estimate absentee ballots will account for about half of the total vote. More than 1.2 million ballots were returned for the August primary before the polls closed last night. Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson says voters are choosing to mail in their ballots or heading to the polls early. And it also underscores how Election Day is now essentially becoming the last day to vote the last day to turn in your ballot as opposed to the day that everyone votes. Benson says all of Michigan's ballots will be counted by the end of the day today. Those votes will be certified by various canvassing boards over the next few weeks. Congresswoman Hillary Sculton survived her first primary challenge Tuesday. The Democrat from Grand Rapids will face Republican Paul Hudson in November to represent the third congressional district. Sculton is the first woman to represent Grand Rapids in Congress and the first Democrat in half a century to hold the seat. She defeated challenger Saleem All-Shaltell in the Democratic primary yesterday. Democratic Congresswoman Alyssa Slotkin won her party's nomination for Michigan's Open U.S. Senate seat last night as a race that could be pivotal for control of the chamber. Colin Jackson has more. Slotkins win means she'll be going up against Mike Rogers, a Republican who also wants to represent it mid-Michigan in the U.S. House of Representatives. When Slotkins' election night party reacted to that news, her response was simple. No, no, we don't, we don't, we don't boo. We just, we win. Slotkins says she plans to focus on the economy, health care, and preventing gun violence says some of her main issues. Meanwhile, the Rogers campaign has highlighted inflation, border security, and crime. I'm Colin Jackson in Detroit. Former Congressman Mike Rogers easily won a four-way primary to be the Republican nominee for Michigan's Open U.S. Senate seat. We have more from Rick Plutta. Rogers was endorsed in the primary by former President Donald Trump. Rogers served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 2001 to 2015 and chaired the House Intelligence Committee. Rogers says he expects the next 90 days will be a sprint with a lot of national attention and campaign spending. We're ready to go, we're ready to lead, we're ready to make sure that the average Michigan family gets representation finally in Washington, D.C. Michigan's Open Seat is ranked as a toss-up or leaning slightly democratic, and the race could be pivotal to determining control of the chain. Michigan has not sent a Republican to the Senate in 23 years. I'm Rick Plutta in Lake Oregon. Living West Michigan celebrates the vibrant people, captivating places, and remarkable things that define our community's unique lifestyles. Through engaging storytelling, we are showcasing the diverse community, breathtaking natural beauty, and rich cultural heritage that make this region truly exceptional. Vibrant people, captivating places, remarkable things. Living West Michigan. Wednesday evenings at 6 on WGVU Public Television. This afternoon in our Crane's Grand Rapids Business Brief, WGVU's Patrick Center talks with Crane's Grand Rapids Business Senior Writer Mark Sanchez about Michigan Supreme Court rulings impacting businesses and their employees, but first Kent County voters voted to renew the ready-by-five millage and the lodging tax hike supporting transformational projects. Basically it means there's a funding mechanism to generate some funding to help finance these two big projects, the Akrasher Amphitheater along the riverfront in the soccer stadium along the freeway just on the west side of downtown. This is a proposal that went on the ballot yesterday in the primary election. It was supported by 54% of the voters in the primary yesterday. Basically would allow the Kent County Board of Commissioners to increase the county's tax-sized tax on hotel and motel rooms from the present 5% up to 8% and that will generate about $8 million a year. That's on top of the 15 million generated annually from the existing tax and that will go into the pipeline to help fund these two big projects and now it's up to the Kent County Board of Commissioners to decide whether to actually implement this higher tax and they have to vote on that and there's a big anticipation that the Commissioners will approve it, will erase that room tax and that it will go into effect January 1. The story we posted this morning by Kate Carlson, my co-worker here at Crane's Grand Rapids, it's a director at Grand Action 2.0 that's behind this project just calls it a huge step forward in reaching that ultimate goal to complete these two prig projects and generate that type of benefit for the community that they envision and adding to those amenities around downtown. But this also then provides funding for future projects. Yeah, there's a talk about an aquarium somewhere in town, that's a project that's after that talked out for a long time and it's finally surfaced again and you're hearing talk about that kind of in the early planning stages. And also voters approved ready by five. Yeah, this is a millage first enacted six years ago. It funds basically early childhood services in Kent County. It does not, does not subsidize directly childcare services but it supports learning and education and a lot of programs that some of these organizations around Kent County that help early childhood. It's a quarter mill levy that's now been renewed by for six years. It passed by about a 59.41 percent margin, fairly, fairly comfortable margin. It's going to generate about $8.8 million in the first year and this is again going to really support a lot of the early childhood development programs around Kent County. And it was backed strongly by some of the business groups in town, especially the Grand Rapids Chamber of Commerce, which really views this as a long-term kind of workforce development mechanism tool to start, you know, get those little kids when they're young and get them starting prepared for development as they get ready for school, go to school and then ultimately in many years down the line are that future workforce for West Michigan. The Michigan Supreme Court ruled last week on a couple of issues impacting not only the business community but employees. Yeah, and this is a big, big deal. If you are in a lawyer, you really want to pay attention to this and have your HR folks start working on this now. There's two prongs to this. First, let's go back to 2018. There is a petition drive by a group that showed up here in Michigan to raise the minimum wage to increase what employers must provide and pay sick time and to get rid of tipped wages, eliminate that here in Michigan. They gathered petition signatures, submitted those to the legislature and under the state constitution, the legislature can either put the proposal straight to the ballot or adopt it outright. That's what the legislature decided to do in 2018, adopted it, but there are a lot of folks, especially the Republicans and Lansing and business groups that didn't like all this thing was worded. So the legislature did what's called an adopt and amend strategy that's been used times before, adopted the proposal and then immediately amended it. What the state Supreme Court said last week in litigation that was filed is that was unconstitutional. The legislature cannot make that amendment in the same legislative session. What does all this mean? It means that the Supreme Court and the state put that law back into effect. Remember, the legislature adopted this at first, then amended it. The state Supreme Court basically wiped away that amendment and put the law into effect as written. So this is going to affect minimum wages in the state, which are presently 1033 an hour. Get the workers make 393 an hour. That's 38% of the hourly minimum wage, and then of course they make that up with tips. And lastly, the legislature goes back and makes some changes. The Supreme Court ruling will increase tip to wages to 48% by 2025, 60%, 2026, 7080, and then ultimately be eliminated in 2029. Minimum wage will increase to 1056 January 1, and then $12 an hour later, and then eventually to $13 an hour in future years. And the exact figure will depend on the state treasurer's adjusting for inflation between 2019 and 2024. In a story, my co-worker, Abigail Porrier did last week on this, talked to a lot of restaurant owners and operators, and they really don't like this. One used the work term that this is going to be Armageddon for a lot of operators. It's going to significantly raise their costs. That's work on very thin operating margins, and so this is coming unless the legislature decides to make some changes to it, which I have no doubt it will be proposed, but it will be dependent on whether the Democrats and the legislature go along with it, and certainly whether the governor goes along with this. And that's just one prong of this ruling. The other part of it was affecting paid sick time, and that's changing as well. What you'll see is employers with fewer than 50 workers will no longer be exempt from having to provide paid sick time. The law will cover law employers with at least one employee, except for the federal government, of course. And two employers will have to offer 72 hours of paid medical leave. It's eight days instead of the existing 40 hours, so that's an increase. And then employers with 10 or fewer workers will have to offer up to 40 hours of paid sick leave, and that's up from 32 hours. So that's another burden in cost, and talking to folks, a couple of stories, cranes, grand rapids, and our sister publication in Detroit have done. The business groups aren't really big on that, and they think it's not only increased cost and it increased burden, but it's an increased administrative burden to now track all of that. Instead of with a lot of employers, they just pull all that paid time off sick leave vacation time into one pool, now they have to separate that back and track it a little better. Things grand rapids, business, senior writer Mark Sanchez, thank you so much. This has been Focus West Michigan from WGVU for Wednesday, August 7, 2024. I'm Joe Bilecki. Our audio operations manager is Rick Bierling, and our news and public affairs director is Patrick Center. We'll be back with more news and events in West Michigan tomorrow wherever you get your podcasts. Thanks for listening. [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] (upbeat music) (upbeat music)