From the Associated Press — Michigan has spent or obligated almost all of a dedicated source of funding needed to clean up and redevelop 7,000 polluted sites across the state. So lawmakers are questioning the Snyder administration on what, if any, plan there is to ask voters for permission to borrow more money. A 1998 ballot measure authorized the state to issue $675 million in bonds for environmental protection, but the money will soon dry up. Republican Governor Rick Snyder is proposing to shift money from another fund – one used to address 8,000 leaking underground fuel tanks – as a one-time “buffer” to continue the remediation of abandoned paper mills and other properties next year. The proposal worries some legislators who already are upset about past raids on the tank cleanup fund.
