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Michigan House: Give unemployed $1,000 if they find job

The “return to work” grants would cover up to 400,000 residents.
Credit: Getty Images
Michigan State Capitol Dome

LANSING, Mich. — Unemployed people who find a job would get $1,000 as part of $12.7 billion in proposed COVID-19 relief spending that began advancing in the Michigan Legislature on Wednesday.

The “return to work” grants would cover up to 400,000 residents.

They are included in supplemental budget bills that either took a step forward in the Republican-led House Appropriations Committee or advanced to the House floor, but are a ways off from being enacted since there is no deal with Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. All but $1 billion in funding would come from federal coronavirus packages that were approved in March and December.

House GOP lawmakers announced their plan last week, but now there are more details. They tied roughly $2 billion in hazard pay for frontline state workers, additional child care funding and spending on road debt to a bill that would limit the governor’s power to shift money within departments, which she did during a 2019 budget impasse.

The proposal includes $25 million to incentivize state employees to leave their job for up to six weeks of pay. The state would immediately pay about $600 million as part of a Flint water crisis settlement instead of borrowing.

Much of the federal funding is non-discretionary and, once approved, must go to K-12 schools, local governments, child care, food and rental assistance, coronavirus testing and vaccine distribution. But the state has flexibility with billions of dollars.

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