Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer released her fiscal year 2026 budget last week, which topped out at $83 billion. 

Familiar themes like funding for roads, education and economic development continue to be the spotlight for Whitmer, a term-limited Democrat who is now in the final two years of what will have been an eight-year run as governor. 

However, deep in the 195-page budget document are long-standing environmental and justice issues that are important to citizens state-wide but largely exist outside the spotlight. Here’s a rundown.

Drinking water affordability

State Sen. Stephanie Chang, a Democrat, has been campaigning for a statewide affordability program for 10 years. 

She gradually built bipartisan support for it by demonstrating that affordability is a statewide issue not confined to Detroit and other urban centers but also affecting rural areas. Chang previously pegged the cost to start a statewide affordability program at $100 million.

Chang’s hopes of introducing affordable housing legislation in late December were dashed when the lame-duck legislative session collapsed in chaos, and the bill died. 

Whitmer’s proposed budget has two water affordability line items that don’t come near Chang’s $100 million estimate. The combined total is $7 million, and they are part of the Department of Health and Human Services’ ongoing budget of $39 billion. 

MDHHS spokesperson Lynn Sutfin told Planet Detroit that the money “provides grant funding to community water systems, community action agencies and nonprofit community-based organizations to provide assistance to Michigan residents.” 

Sutfin did not respond when asked if the agency supports Sen. Chang’s affordability legislation.  

In a recent press release, Chang praised Whitmer, saying,“I am pleased to see Gov. Whitmer’s inclusion of funding for water affordability in her proposed FY 2026 budget.”  

Chang told Planet Detroit that the funds will cover the $1 million in administrative costs of the current affordability program, with the balance of $6 million dedicated to assisting residents struggling to pay water bills.

Looking ahead, “Michigan has made significant strides to provide water assistance, and now is the time for Michigan to invest strongly in water affordability solutions and pass bipartisan water affordability legislation,” Chang said.

Detroit River’s toxic legacy

Whitmer’s proposed budget includes $1.2 billion for the Department of Environment Great Lakes & Energy (EGLE), the state’s environmental watchdog and regulator. 

Of that $1.2 billion, $22.6 million will be allocated for “brownfield redevelopment grants and loans and to add to the progress in cleaning up the Detroit River Area of Concern, reducing pollution in the Great Lakes,” the agency said in a press release.

The Detroit River still contains approximately 3.5 million cubic yards of toxic sediment from the peak industrial era of the 1950s and 1960s. While federal funds from the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative have been available to clean up contaminated sites like the Detroit River, they require a non-federal sponsor to invest, and securing funds from those entities has been met with limited success. 

Michigan and Detroit lag behind Milwaukee and Wisconsin on cleaning up legacy toxic rivers. In 2023, they received $275 million from the USEPA, and local and state entities contributed $170 million to remediate the Milwaukee Estuary.

Asked about the secret to Milwaukee’s success in securing non-federal funding, water executive Kevin Shafer previously said, “Every project needs a champion, that person can talk to federal and state governments and various local government entities including the business community. You need that type of person to lead the way,” Shafer said. 

EGLE, with $300,000 from the USEPA, recently launched a program with the non-profit Friends of the Detroit River to “identify and engage with potential industrial and other non-federal partners” who will financially support remediation of the toxic sediment sites in the Detroit River.

Statewide septic code

As with drinking water affordability, legislation to implement a statewide septic code died in the December lame-duck legislative session. Michigan is the only state without a statewide code to regulate septic tanks. 

Whitmer’s budget provides a “$7 million one-time investment to support the implementation of a statewide septic code with the creation of a database and septic permitting and assessment program, reducing sewage and E. coli in our waterways,” EGLE said in a budget press release. 

Traverse City’s Dave Dempsey sees the $7 million septic investment by Whitmer as an “encouraging signal.”

Dempsey is a senior adviser to For Love of Water (FLOW), a non-profit that has helped lead a coalition of groups pressing for state action on a septic code. 

“This item will be especially helpful once a revised sanitary code is in place,” Dempsey said. 

Asked to speculate on the chances of septic code legislation passing, Dempsey said “it’s too early to tell whether the new House (Republican) majority will support or allow legislation on this subject to pass, but I’m hopeful because it’s not a traditional centralized command and control approach.”  

Dempsey told Planet Detroit that local health departments will take the lead and owners of septic systems will have plenty of time to comply.  

Related to the environment in general, Dempsey noted that Whitmer’s budget proposal contained “a number of new initiatives and a general fund increase of almost 14%.”

In a statement reacting to Whitmer’s budget, Republican House Speaker Matt Hall said, “We are ready to take a hard look at her proposals, some of which are good ideas, but House Republicans will not grow government at the expense of hardworking taxpayers.”

The deadline for passage of the new budget is September 30.