Matthew Dolan, Kathleen Gray, and Todd Spangler

Detroit Free Press

Gov. Rick Snyder on Wednesday is expected to request an additional $195 million to bring back safe drinking water to Flint and treat its impacted residents after highly corrosive water drawn from the Flint River leached lead throughout the city's drinking water system, according to a person familiar with the budget.

The breakdown of the proposed Flint appropriation for fiscal year 2017 is:

$37 million for safe drinking water efforts;

$15 million for food and nutrition to combat lead exposure;

$63 million for improving the physical, social and education well-being of Flint children and other vulnerable residents;

$30 million for providing credits for future water bills based on water that was not used during the crisis;

and $50 million in a reserve fund for future, but undefined future needs in Flint.

The governor and his budget director John Roberts are expected to push for the new funding for Flint because "time is of the essence — we can't play catch-up," according to a document associated with the budget request.

Flint mayor hopes to begin pipe replacement next month

Addressing the tainted drinking water supply in Flint has become the top priority — as well as the greatest political liability — for Snyder. The second-term governor has faced sharp criticism for his administration's laggard response to insistent but largely unheeded calls from residents in Flint that their tap water was harmful.

Administration officials say they have now rolled out a robust response and a healthy budget request for the city of almost 100,000 residents.

In April 2014, the city, while under the control of a state-appointed emergency manager, switched the source of supply from Lake Huron water supplied by the City of Detroit to Flint River water treated at the Flint's city treatment plant. Michigan Department of Environmental Quality officials have acknowledged they made a mistake when they failed to require needed corrosion-control chemicals to be added to the water.

As a result, lead leached from pipes and fixtures into the drinking water and test showed lead levels spiked in the blood of some Flint children. Although the city switched back to Detroit water in October, officials say the potential for harm continues because of damage done to Flint's water distribution infrastructure.

State and federal investigations into Flint's environmental disaster are ongoing and the city remains under a state of emergency until at least mid-April. The lead contamination in Flint has drawn worldwide attention, including from several presidential candidates.

The funding package comes on top of $37 million in emergency funding from supplemental budget actions. The new appropriation for the upcoming budget year would include $30 million earlier outlined by the governor for water bill payment relief.

The $28 million passed by the state Legislature and signed by the governor earlier this year includes the purchase of bottled water, water filters and replacement cartridges for Flint residents and business; water testing; replacement for plumbing fixtures in city schools and day care; deployment of the Michigan National Guard to the city and the hiring of additional school nurses among other measures.

Among the initiatives as part of the new, $195-million proposed funding, Snyder plans to sample the water for every resident of the city and inspect and replace affected water fixtures in schools and day care facilities.

No direct money for Flint in Obama's last budget

The governor's administration also plans to keep Flint connected to the Detroit water system through the end of this year. It was the switch from the Detroit system to the Flint River water that officials believe cause corrosive water to enter the system and leach lead from pipes, which ended up in the drinking water of residents. The state helped support the city's switch back to Detroit water last fall.

With $15 million in new spending, the administration hopes to fund school meal programs, including during the summer; a mobile food bank and inspections at restaurants to make sure food is free of lead and other contaminants.

The bulk of the new proposed funding would be targeted toward so-called wraparound services for residents to help insure their long-term health. Programs would include physical and behavioral treatment for those with high blood lead levels, additional support for special education, literacy support, school nurses, crisis counseling and lead abatement in homes.

The $30 million announced by the governor earlier this month and passed already by the Senate is designed to keep water service for strapped residents on and reimburse them for water they cannot drink because of lead contamination. It calls for a credit the City of Flint can apply to residents’ water bills until state and federal officials certify the water is safe for consumption.

Overall, Snyder is expected to call for a legislative review during the middle of the next fiscal year in part to assess whether the new funding has been allocated properly, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Snyder is expected to unveil his entire budget on Wednesday after meeting today with fellow Republican members of the state House and Senate appropriations committee.

A person familiar with the budget proposal expects most of the Flint efforts to be funded from the state's current surplus of roughly $500 million.

Initial reactions to the budget request by the governor in Lansing was generally supportive, although legislators said in interviews they must first dig into the details.

A spokeswoman for Senate Majority Leader Arlan Meekhof, R-West Olive, said Tuesday that the GOP leader "is looking at how the Senate can assist Flint to improve damaged infrastructure and put a program in place to assist other communities to upgrade and improve existing infrastructure."

State Rep. Sheldon Neeley, D-Flint, said the state was moving in incremental steps.

"Depending on where those dollars land is the important piece. We’ve got to figure out how he came up with that number. How that money is going to land and how this is going to help relieve the problems people are having,” Neeley said Tuesday.

He said the state should chip in money to help replace lead pipes in Flint. "In many instances, it’s going to require that we replace the pipes so those dollars should be used to that effort,” he said.

State Rep. Al Pscholka, R-Stevensville, chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, said the focus on the upcoming budget should be on a long-range plan for Flint.

“We’ve already done some of the shorter-term things to deal with the emergency so what is it that we need to help solve this problem," Pscholka said Tuesday. "That’s what we’re going to find out shortly where those buckets are. One-hundred and ninety-five million is a lot of money and hopefully it will get us all the way through fiscal 2017.”

Earlier Tuesday, President Barack Obama’s final budget request to Congress did not set aside money specifically for the ongoing water crisis in Flint, but it does propose increasing funds for loans that could potentially be used to rebuild that city’s infrastructure.

While the U.S. Senate is still debating whether and how much to authorize in funding for Flint, where high levels of lead have been found in residents’ tap water, the Obama administration’s proposed fiscal 2017 budget released Tuesday includes $157 million more for low-interest loans that would go to states to help rebuild, repair and replace old water infrastructure.

Last month, the president signed an emergency declaration for Flint, setting in motion a federal response but setting no specific funding commitment for the city.

The White House has said it’s supportive of efforts in Congress to allocate funding for Flint, even though it has rejected requests to declare a major disaster in the city due to statutes that limit those to natural events, fires or explosions. Snyder has said it could cost $700 million or more to replace and repair damaged infrastructure in Flint.

With the Obama administration precluded from providing disaster funds under federal law, Michigan’s U.S. senators have been trying to get funding to help pay for infrastructure repairs attached to an unrelated bill before the chamber, initially asking for $600 million and holding up the bill when Republicans offered only $50 million in upfront funding. Negotiations were continuing Tuesday, even as different proposals get floated in the U.S. House, including one from U.S. Rep. Candice Miller, R-Harrison Township, for $1 billion in emergency funds.

Flint is also receiving an outpouring of private donations to a variety of causes associated with the water crisis. The latest commitment came Tuesday when General Motors and the UAW announced a $3-million donation to the United Way of Genesee County to help meet health and education needs of Flint children affected by lead-contaminated water.

Contact Matthew Dolan: 313-223-4743 or msdolan@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @matthewsdolan. Staff writers Paul Egan and Greg Gardner contributed to this report.