Health Workers to Get Pay Bump Under Michigan Covid Relief Law

Michigan health-care workers will see pay raises and day care centers will get cash grants to make up for shrinking class sizes under a sweeping $880 million coronavirus relief package signed into law Wednesday.

The measure (S.B. 690) will distribute roughly one-third of the state’s $3.1 billion in CARES Act funding. The remainder will be allocated according to a deal struck by Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) and the General Assembly’s Republican leadership Monday night that seeks to patch a $2.2 billion budget hole the state faces.

“Between the signing of this bill today and the recent agreement on the 2020 budget announced earlier this week, we have now put the full amount of the federal Coronavirus Relief Fund to use so that Michiganders can reap the full benefit of our federal funding,” Whitmer said in a statement.

“Now, we need Congress to act later this month and provide additional aid to the states so that we can begin to address the budget shortfall in 2021,” she said.

The biggest portions of the bill’s funds will go toward local government grants meant to reimburse counties and municipalities for their virus response ($200 million); a stipend for child care facilities that have state-reduced class sizes ($125 million); $2-per-hour pay raises for state health-care workers ($120 million); bonus payments for local first responders ($100 million); and grants to help support small businesses ($100 million).

The rest of the funds will be used for a series of other programs, including increasing internet connectivity for low-income school-age children ($25 million); offsetting a moratorium on residential water shutoffs ($25 million); and hiring 500 more state workers to support the beleaguered unemployment insurance system ($29 million).

Whitmer previously faced criticism by GOP House lawmakers for having Michigan lag behind other states that had already distributed their federal CARES Act funding. She said in testimony in June that her office was still trying to work out a deal with Republicans.