By KEVIN WALKER
Michigan Correspondent

LANSING, Mich. — A new proposal to combine the Departments of Natural Resources (DNR) and Environmental Quality (DEQ) appears to be gaining ground. Last month state Senator Michelle McManus (R-Lake Leelanau), chairwoman of the Natural Resources subcommittee, put forth a proposal to combine the two departments into one Department of Conservation. According to a statement out of McManus’ office, the DEQ would be retained as an agency within the new department and the Natural Resources Commission would be retained as its oversight board.

A bill to accomplish this maneuver hasn’t yet been introduced, but a spokeswoman for McManus said the proposal is gaining ground through the budgetary process. “Both the senate and the house have combined the budgets for the DNR and DEQ into one budget,” said Veronica LaDuke, the spokeswoman. “The idea of combining the two departments is definitely a bipartisan idea.”

LaDuke said if the two departments are combined the initial savings in taxpayer dollars would only be a couple of million initially, but she said it would amount to more over time. Also, part of the idea is to create a model for how state government can be more efficient.

LaDuke said she’s hopeful that a bill to be introduced later in the legislative session to accomplish the departmental merger will be just a formality; however, she said that will depend to a large extent on what Governor Granholm thinks about it. “She has spoken about wanting to do this in the past, but she hasn’t spoken about it lately,” LaDuke said.

The DNR’s press officer, Mary Detloff, would not comment, saying only that it’s up to the governor to decide if the departments will be merged. Tiffany Brown, a spokeswoman for Granholm, was noncommittal on the subject.

“We understand the interest on the part of some to combine these two departments and, in fact, the Lieutenant Governor is holding hearings around the state this month on streamlining state government by identifying core functions,” Brown said.
“We expect this to be part of ongoing discussions about the budget and we look forward to working with members of both chambers on this issue.”

In another budget development affecting agriculture, the Agricultural Innovation Grant Program, also known as the Julian-Stille Value-Added program, has been eliminated. The Michigan Department of Agriculture (MDA) made the announcement last month.

The program, which was started by Gov. Granholm, paid out nearly $4.5 million in competitive grants to farmers and agricultural concerns to help pay for agriculture-related inventions as well as innovative business plans.

This program is only one of many that have fallen victim to the budget axe. The Right-to-Farm program and Michigan Agriculture Environmental Assurance Program were also set to be immediately defunded through the Governor’s May executive order, but got a reprieve for the current fiscal year by getting $195,000 from another part of the department, said Jennifer Holton, an MDA spokeswoman.