Governor Gretchen Whitmer on Aug. 16 announced the Economic Development Administration’s (EDA) $1.6 million grant to support the Downriver Riverfront Communities Economic Recovery Implementation Project. This grant is funded by the EDA’s $300 million Coal Communities Commitment.

“This economic development grant will help the Downriver community redevelop two coal plant sites and establish a new program to support local small businesses,” said Governor Whitmer. “I am grateful for this partnership with the Economic Development Administration and will work with anyone to grow Michigan’s economy, create good-paying jobs, and invest in every region of our great state. Along with this grant, we will continue making investments to ensure that no worker is left behind during any economic transition we face.”

“Global climate change is real and impacting our communities in many ways, and as we transition to cleaner energy sources, we must be mindful of the effects on communities who have historically depended on the coal economy,” said Congresswoman Debbie Dingell (MI-12). “Looking towards the future, we want to ensure the sites of the current plants are safely cleaned up and restored to protect our environment and residents, while diversifying local business to maintain a strong economic base. This funding will help support those efforts, and the work of the Downriver Community Conference will have a positive impact on our local economy and quality of life. The Downriver communities are a great place to live, raise a family, and enjoy the outdoors, and this grant will help us protect and strengthen them.”

“This $1.6 million Economic Development Grant is a huge win for all of Downriver,” said state Representative Darrin Camilleri (D-Trenton). “It is an historic investment that will help us redevelop multiple waterfront sites, work toward a more sustainable economy, reinforce our small business community, and ultimately create more local jobs. I am proud to work with the Downriver Community Conference and the Economic Development Administration to utilize our beautiful waterfront and reimagine Downriver’s future.”

“This grant will bring extraordinary opportunities to our impacted communities — new jobs, new expansion and new industries,” said state Representative Tullio Liberati (D-Allen Park). “While many coal communities are picking up the pieces from the economic fallout of the pandemic, the Downriver Community Conference was granted an opportunity to strengthen our shaken foundation and diversify our local economy. Now that we are moving away from coal as a source of energy, these funds will help to transform outdated sites into new vibrant business opportunities. These funds will help provide a better future for us and our community. We couldn’t be more grateful.”

“The UWUA has advocated for investment in these communities since 2015, and we’re pleased to see that communities impacted by coal-fired power plant closures will finally benefit from U.S. Economic Development Administration funding, said James Slevin, President of the Utility Workers Union of America. “Thank you to Governor Whitmer for her leadership on this. We know this money will go far to foster good, family-supporting jobs and further long-term economic recovery in Southeast Michigan.”

EDA Investment Background

The program invests resources into communities that are undergoing an economic transition after years of relying on the coal industry. It ensures that impacted workers and communities will have new opportunities by investing resources to diversify their economy, ensuring local governments have the resources to continue providing essential services from public school to public safety, and helping transition workers into new, good-paying jobs.

The investment will help the Downriver community redevelop two coal plant sites and establish a new small business program to help diversify the local economy. The federal investment will be matched with $401,514 in local funds.

Energy Transition Impact Project (ETIP) Background 

Communities that have hosted energy facilities face significant issues such as reduced tax base, lost employment, and reduction in services as the energy industry closes older coal plants. To respond to this challenge, Governor Whitmer and Michigan Department of Treasury created the Energy Transition Impact Project (ETIP) to help communities plan for change and thrive when faced with the closure of an energy plant. To date, ETIP has assisted communities with obtaining state and federal resources to develop comprehensive strategies to offset industry decisions to close large energy plants. 

Michigan students who experienced foster care will receive college scholarships through money raised at the Sept. 22 Fostering Futures Scholarship Trust Fund Benefit Dinner in Detroit.

The 10th annual Fostering Futures Scholarship Detroit is being held from 5:30-9:30 p.m. at the Roostertail, 100 Marquette Drive, in Detroit. The cost to attend is $100 or $800 for a table of 8 seats.

The event includes dinner, a variety of raffle opportunities and DJ Matt Wade of T2 Music. Carolyn Clifford of WXYZ-TV 7 returns as emcee for the evening -- and the keynote speaker is Stephen A. Queisser, vice president strategic partnerships at Student Connections LLC, who will share his life story as a foster parent.

"Please join us at the Roostertail for a wonderful dinner and to help support young adults who have experienced foster care,” said Robin Lott, director of Treasury's Office of Postsecondary Financial Planning. “These men and women are planning to attend college, and every donation from you helps with books, tuition, or housing. If you can't make it to Detroit in-person, please consider an online donation."

Reservation information is available at www.michigan.gov/fosteringfutures. Individuals who cannot attend the event may donate to the Fostering Futures Scholarship Trust Fund online.

Close to 11,000 youth are in the Michigan foster care system run by the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services. Nationally, 75% of former foster youth express a desire to attend college, fewer than 10% enroll in college after high school and fewer than 3% eventually earn a degree.

The Fostering Futures Scholarship Trust Fund provides former foster care students who may not have adequate family support or financial resources to attend college, with a scholarship. During the 2021-22 academic year, 467 students at 58 different institutions are eligible for support.

Fostering Futures Scholarship Trust Fund is a Section 170(c) organization, so all contributions are eligible for an income tax deduction.

Working in Unclaimed Property for 18 years has given Star Award winner Carrie Best a thorough operational knowledge of a department with literally thousands of moving parts. As a departmental analyst, she trains staff, liaisons with vendors, troubleshoots the KAPS system, takes care of support tickets, evaluates CSR calls and even does some claims processing.

Starting as a customer service representative/calculations assistant, then moving into supervisory and analyst roles has given Carrie a broad view of Unclaimed Properties and clarified what she likes best about her job: it’s a little bit of everything. She enjoys researching a difficult claim or problem-solving a KAPS system issue, and she likes the challenge of reuniting claimants with their property.

Carrie recounted an incident that occurred during her first year that helped her understand how meaningful it could be to work in Unclaimed Property.

“I was finally trained on phones and taking calls without a trainer sitting there listening. A lady called and asked me to check to see if she had any lost property. She is chatting as I look up her information, telling me all about her daughter who is going into college. I tell the customer that I’ve found something and that it is kind of a lot….then I asked her if she needed to sit down because I could tell by her voice she was already shocked.

“The woman was getting over $16,000 in child support back-payment and she started to cry — the money was going to help put her daughter through school! So that was pretty awesome.”

“I always begin with the understanding that ‘this isn’t our money’,” said Carrie. “We’re trying to get it back to the rightful owners or their heirs, and I appreciate being able to assist people with the knowledge I have after 18 years in the department. There’s still stuff I don’t know, but I’m willing to research and work to help others be successful.”

Stephanie Weeks nominated Carrie for the Star Award and underscores Carrie’s abilities as a go-to office resource who is relied upon for her depth and breadth of departmental experience.

“Carrie worked for months to help develop a tool that would automatically assign work to our staff and has continued to fine-tune it with our developers to try to get each aspect right,” Stephanie commented. “This feature allows the staff to refill their work queues as needed without having to ask for someone else to do it. Her demeanor may appear reserved, but her impact is enormous.

“She does an amazing job of keeping the staff informed, along with seeking solutions for any issues that may arise — which is just about every day!” added Weeks. “Carrie works on improvements for our system, office and general processes with the goal of making our work and service more efficient. Long story long, she’s an exemplary employee and without her, I think a lot of us would be lost.”

Best was part of a small group integral to testing, reporting on and ultimately switching to the department’s new KAPS system in 2018, and is very proud of the implementation and continued improvements they’ve been able to make on the project. The KAPS system handles everything that comes in as unclaimed property; it can take in all the holder reports and put all the properties into the system where claimants can claim their unclaimed funds.

Carrie is quick to attribute kudos to her co-workers, and especially to her supervisor and mentor, Laura Herrin. “Learn from your peers, learn from management,” she advised. Mom to eight-year-old Aiden, Carrie’s succinct recommendations for success travel from home to office: “Work hard and ask questions, that’s how you learn. And be a team player!” 

The Michigan Department of Treasury's Tax Policy Division recently published its August 2020 Treasury Update.

This quarterly publication provides the latest news and updates from the department's legal team.

Topics covered in the August issue include:

• Court of Appeals rules that reverse vending machines do not qualify for the industrial processing exemptions
• Supreme Court upholds transfer of tax credit between banking entities via merger
• All things advocate
• Taxation of digital currencies
• Is a gift certificate taxable?
• Court of Claims addresses its power to review tax appeals when the taxpayer doesn't pay the uncontested assessment amounts
• Court of Claims holds retailer providing property to in-state customers subject to use tax
• Audit waivers after Public Act 3 of 2014

To read about these topics, download the latest Treasury Update from the Michigan Department of Treasury's website.

For questions or ideas for future newsletter or Revenue Administrative Bulletin topics, or suggestions for improving Treasury Update, please email Treas_Tax_Policy@michigan.gov.