Budget boosts child care, keeps caregiver pay hike

LANSING » Michigan will make more kids eligible for child care subsidies, equip state troopers with body cameras and make permanent a pandemic wage hike for nursing home workers and other caregivers under the next state budget, poised for initial approval Tuesday.

The bipartisan $53 billion spending plan, which includes billions in federal COVID-19 funding, also will boost payments for child care providers and enable them to give $1,000 bonuses to new or existing staff. The state’s savings account will grow by $500 million.

As part of the deal, Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer agreed to a Republican-written provision to prevent the state and local governments from issuing coronavirus vaccine requirements that go further than plans outlined by President Joe Biden. He recently said the federal government would mandate shots for many health care workers and require that employers with at least 100 employees force them to get vaccinated or be tested weekly.

“We negotiated together in good faith,” the governor said at the Detroit Regional Chamber’s Mackinac Policy Conference on Mackinac Island. “This budget makes bold investments in Michigan’s families, in our communities and in our small businesses.”

The GOP-led Legislature is expected to pass the plan in time for her to sign it before Oct. 1, when the new fiscal year begins. The Senate on Tuesday unanimously approved one of two bills, which also includes $2 billion in supplemental spending this budget year. The $17 billion school aid budget was enacted in July.

Michigan will spend funding allotted for child care under the past two federal COVID-19 rescue laws. Much of it will help stabilize facilities hurt by the pandemic. Other funds will expand eligibility for child care subsidies to 185% of the federal poverty level instead of 150% for two years, raise payments to providers that serve lower-income children and waive families’ out-of-pocket copays.