Michigan governor plans $360M for Flint, infrastructure

“This bill simply states that when there are unacceptable levels of lead in people’s drinking water, the public should be immediately told about it. This bill in itself wouldn’t have prevented the crisis in my hometown, but it is a necessary first step to ensure that such an emergency doesn’t happen again”.

Luckily, county health officials took action instead of waiting around for the results to be released to them, and Henry stated on the 6th that he was directing county health staff to visit Flint schools, meet with administrators and make sure no one was drinking the water to reduce the risk to students. Corrective measures are now underway, the city of Flint said in a statement.

Lead leached from old pipes into homes after the city’s 2014 switch to the Flint River from Detroit’s water system. Currently, both state and city officials have taken to passing the blame around and desperately trying to downplay whatever roles they may have played in the decisions that ultimately exposed thousands to poisoned water. His email also didn’t say who ultimately decided against using corrosion control chemicals. Terence Burse carries bottled water out to the vehicle for a resident on February 7, 2016 in Flint, Michigan.

The $195 million consists of $37 million for water and water infrastructure, $15 million for food and nutrition, $63 million for health and well-being, $30 million for water bill credits and a $50 million reserve fund, Snyder said. Kildee said Donovan “likes the direction” of the bill “but has some suggestions” on how it could be improved. “We’ve had money for water-immediate water needs, emergency response stuff, some money for infrastructure”, said Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha. Twenty-five million dollars of Snyder’s latest allocation would go toward removing lead from the city’s pipes.

It’s unclear exactly where the water replacement will begin in the city, but retired National Guard Brig. Michael Moore is still out there calling for Governor Snyder’s head on a plate and Hillary Clinton has certainly implied as much without stating it directly.

The Cruz campaign sent volunteers in the middle of January to hand out bottled water in Flint – but only to women at a “crisis pregnancy center”, a facility run by an anti-abortion group.

Governor Rick Snyder had to push past a throng of protesters as he prepared to present his budget plan for the coming fiscal year.

Snyder also proposed spending $135 million a year to provide just two specialty drugs – for Hepatitis C and cystic fibrosis – to several thousand people on Medicaid or in prison.

In the intervening 18-month period before the state conceded Flint’s drinking water was contaminated, state officials documented a spike of legionnaires’ disease in the area surrounding Flint, including nine deaths, but officials haven’t concluded the water source was the cause of the increase.

Staff with the state’s Bureau of Services for Blind Persons contacted its almost 40 clients living in Flint by home visit or phone. Others reported symptoms, including rashes and hair loss, but local officials insisted the water was safe.