State Rep. Tony Forlini didn’t need to be in Lansing very long before he discovered yet another way that Macomb County gets short-changed in state funding.
Forlini, a Harrison Township Republican who took office in January, found that the Michigan Natural Resources Trust Fund is awarding Wayne County with $36 million this year, while many small counties are receiving seven-figure sums: Marquette County, $4.5 million, Cheboygan County, $6.5 million, Allegan County, $9.3 million.
And Macomb County? We get $70,000.
“Macomb County has a variety of worthwhile projects that could be pursued with MNRTF funding, including bike path development on the (Lake St. Clair) shoreline adjacent to Selfridge Air National Guard Base in Harrison Township,” Forlini said. “As long as these funds are constitutionally restricted to natural resource projects, Macomb County residents should benefit from increased recreational opportunities close to home.
The MNRTF, which consists of oil and gas revenues, provides financial assistance to local units of government and to the Department of Natural Resources for the purchase of lands for outdoor recreation, protection of natural resources and open space, and development of land for public outdoor recreation. Approval of the projects took place in December, during the previous Legislature.
“Only one project was approved for Macomb County, Michigan’s third most populated county, while other areas were overrepresented with funding,” added Forlini, the former Harrison Township supervisor.
That one project is the ongoing development of the Nicholson Nature Center, located along the North Branch of the Clinton River, near Macomb County’s Elizabeth Road complex.
The $70,000 contribution to the nature center was included in a measure approved by the House Appropriations Committee that allocates $102.1 million from the MNRTF statewide.
Needless to say, Forlini voted “no.”
