Michigan

Michigan Senate votes to block pursuit of COVID jobless aid overpayments

Published

4 weeks ago

December 11, 2025

Michigan Senate votes to block pursuit of COVID jobless aid overpayments

Lansing — The Michigan Senate voted unanimously this week in favor of a bill that would prevent the state’s Unemployment Insurance Agency from continuing to try to recoup jobless aid overpayments that were made during the COVID-19 pandemic, affecting as many as 350,000 people.

Many lawmakers have reported receiving a deluge of calls from constituents, in recent weeks, after the agency began sending out letters, wanting money back from people whom state officials believe received more assistance than they should have during the pandemic. The messages came after the settlement of a three-year court battle over the repayment effort, which allowed the agency to resume collections.

Sen. Jeff Irwin, D-Ann Arbor, contended that the Unemployment Insurance Agency was demanding money back from low-income and gig workers who were simply trying to access a financial support system that was available to them in 2020.

“Somewhere along the line, in the maze of boxes that they have to check every week to stay compliant, there was one box that was unchecked,” Irwin said. “And now, the UIA comes after them alleging fraud, turning their life upside down, sending them threatening letters.”

The Senate bill, which passed Tuesday in a vote of 35-0, would require the agency to waive the recovery of improperly paid benefits if they were distributed more than three years ago. The first cases of COVID-19 in Michigan were identified in March 2020, five years ago. The pandemic and government efforts to combat the spread of the virus spurred a rush of unemployment claims and a wave of fraud.

The bill still allows the state to seek repayments that were “the result of the claimant’s fraud.”

Both Democratic and Republican senators — Democrats have a majority in the Senate — voted for the measure Tuesday. However, it will have to be approved by the GOP-controlled House and signed by Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer to become law.

Jason Palmer, the Unemployment Insurance Agency’s director, said in a statement on Sept. 8 that his staff was “legally obligated” to seek the repayments from the pandemic if they were improper. Roughly 350,000 workers with claims in collections dating back to March 2020 would be required to return the unemployment benefits they received, the agency has said.

The value of the overpayments, many of which lawmakers believe were made or sought by accident, has been estimated at $2.7 billion. The Unemployment Insurance Agency faced a tidal wave of claims and fraudulent activity during the COVID-19 pandemic, as the state’s jobless rate reached as high as 22.7% in April 2020.

Palmer has said the overpayments primarily resulted from claimants not providing the requested or required proof of employment or income, starting a job but continuing to certify for benefits as if they were unemployed and not satisfying the required work search activities.

“In these situations, we have a legal and fiduciary duty to recover the funds,” Palmer previously said. “The unemployment trust fund is taxpayer money, and we must be responsible stewards of it.”

Much of the unemployment money in question flowed through the federal government. Many business groups, like the National Federation of Independent Business, have voiced concerns that the U.S. Department of Labor might try to force the state to reimburse the federal government for the overpayments if they’re specifically forgiven by the Legislature.

“We would still like to see a waiver or waiver language because we don’t want to see the state end up with a budget crisis,” said Amanda Fisher, Michigan state director for the National Federation of Independent Business.

Lawmakers attempted to address that concern in the bill by adding a provision that says the new policy doesn’t obligate the Unemployment Trust Fund for any amount of money.

Brian Calley, president and CEO of the Small Business Association of Michigan, called the new language an improvement. But Calley said he wants to see a specific statement in the bill that makes it clear that employers will not be assessed any additional liability because of the policy.

Forgiving the overpayments isn’t the problem, Calley said. It’s the potential liability to the small businesses that fund the Unemployment Trust Fund, he said.

“You could inadvertently create a massive obligation for small businesses,” said Calley, a former lieutenant governor.

Senate Minority Leader Aric Nesbitt, R-Porter Township, who’s running for governor, was among 16 Republicans who voted for the bill Tuesday. He said it was a shame that lawmakers were still dealing with the “ineptitude” of Whitmer’s administration.

From the other side of the aisle, Irwin said the Unemployment Insurance Agency was acting “irresponsibly” in seeking the repayments from the pandemic.

“They bully our residents,” Irwin said. “I’ve had residents … who have paid UIA back money, not because they owed, but because they’re scared. They’re bullied. And they’re harassed by the agency.”

Sen. Darrin Camilleri, D-Trenton, the proposal’s sponsor, called on the House to pass it next week before the holidays.

“They should do the right thing,” Camilleri said Wednesday in an interview.

cmauger@detroitnews.com

Source link

Click to comment

Michigan

Michigan football signs former No. 1-ranked running back

Published

8 hours ago

January 8, 2026

Press Room

Michigan football signs former No. 1-ranked running back

Michigan football moved quickly to help fill its running back room on Thursday, adding the No. 1-ranked rusher in the 2024 recruiting class to the roster.

Taylor Tatum, who spent the last two seasons at Oklahoma, signed with the Wolverines for the 2026 season, The Ann Arbor News/MLive confirmed.

Tatum, listed at 5-foot-10 and 212 pounds, has three seasons of college eligibility remaining.

He appeared in 12 games for the Sooners, most of it during his true-freshman season in 2024. That first season, Tatum rushed for 278 yards and three touchdowns, highlighted by a five-carry, 69-yard game in Oklahoma’s season opener against Temple.

Tatum was hampered by injuries in 2025, appearing in just one game against South Carolina, where he rushed once for negative-1 yard.

A former four-star recruit, Tatum was considered the nation’s No. 1 running back in 2024 out of Longview High School in Texas, where he set the school record for career rushing touchdowns (53). He picked Oklahoma over Ohio State, Alabama, Oregon, USC, among others.

Tatum was also a member of the Oklahoma baseball team, though he didn’t appear in a game in 2025.

The signing comes just a day after Michigan’s leading rusher in 2025, Jordan Marshall, announced his return to the Wolverines. Since the transfer portal opened last Friday, reserve running backs Bryson Kuzdzal and Jasper Parker have entered. Parker has since signed to play at Arkansas next season.

Meanwhile, Michigan awaits a decision from its other star back, Justice Haynes, who’s left the door open to a return to college. A pair of freshmen backs, Savion Hiter and Jonathan Brown, also joined the team this week.

Tony Alford, Michigan’s running backs coach, was one of three assistants retained by new head coach Kyle Whittingham.

Source link

Michigan

Kyle Whittingham knows what Michigan football needs

Published

20 hours ago

January 8, 2026

Press Room

Kyle Whittingham knows what Michigan football needs

Michigan football is primed to win now, new coach Kyle Whittingham said this week on “The Dan Patrick Show.”

The Wolverines have made far too many headlines off the field, which is why Whittingham told Patrick the organization needs to simply get back to focusing on the reason they’re all together as a team − football.

“The place doesn’t need a rebuild, it needs a reboot of trust and getting rid of the drama and just get back to playing Michigan football without all the distractions,” Whittingham said. “It didn’t come from the players. The players were not involved. It was not some player issue – it was just the peripheral.

“Guys here have a great attitude, I met with everyone of them last week at the bowl site. Quality young men, care about academics, excited to be at Michigan, but they’ve dealt with a lot over the last few years.”

Whittingham, 66, takes over as the 22nd head coach in program history after a pair of scandals rocked the previous two men who held his job.

Jim Harbaugh led the Wolverines from 2015-23 − and left on top by winning a national championship − but also was found to have a lack of institutional control in his program by NCAA investigators after two separate NCAA violations occurred under his watch: impermissible recruiting and illegal sign-stealing.

More recently, Sherrone Moore was fired in scandal after he was found to have had a relationship with a subordinate and was subsequently arrested after he allegedly went to her house and threatened his own life − he was jailed for two nights and charged with felony home invasion, misdemeanor stalking and misdemeanor breaking and entering.

Patrick asked if there was any selling point Whittingham needed to hear specifically from Michigan. Whittingham said when he stepped away from Utah in mid-December there were only a handful of program’s he would have even entertained. He called Michigan “a special place.”

“Needed to hear that Michigan was what I thought it was,” he said. “Hey’re committed to winning here, we do have some challenges with entrance requirements, there is a little bit of a hurdle there, but talk about athletes, resources, tradition − it’s all here at Michigan.”

Whittingham also quipped about the irony of previously being a team that wore red (Utah) whose primary rival wore blue (BYU) to flipping that. It’s also not lost on him that his mentor, Urban Meyer, went 7-0 against Michigan in his tenure in Columbus − Whittingham joked at his opening press conference that Meyer’s name alone might be considered a “four-letter word” in Ann Arbor.

“Blue was our rival at Utah for years,” he said. “Now I’ve got to get used to saying, ‘Go Blue.’”

Whittingham is in the throes of one of the busiest times on the college football calendar. The transfer portal opened for a 15-day window Jan. 2-16, setting off a scramble to both retain players, scout the database and find appropriate fits for the team.

Whittingham has only known his roster and coaches for approximately 10 days – he said while down in Florida he was going to “lock himself” in a room at Schembechler Hall in Ann Arbor to watch film on the players on his roster. He has been able to keep Bryce Underwood, Andrew Marsh, Andrew Babalola, Blake Frazier, Evan Link, Jake Guarnera and Zeke Berry − the last two of whom had put their names in the transfer portal before indicating their return to U-M for 2026.

With money flowing, back-channeling frequent and poaching at an all-time high, Whittingham doesn’t see college football’s current model as something that will last as currently constructed for more than a handful of years.

“It is not sustainable, there’s no question about that,” Whittingham said. “Something’s gotta give. Within a 2- to 4-, 5-year window, you’re going to see a major overhaul of Division I football. I think it’s going to become more of a minor league NFL model. I think you’re gonna see a salary cap, collective bargaining, players as employees.

“I think all that’s coming because we cannot maintain this pace.”

Tony Garcia is the Wolverines beat writer for the Detroit Free Press. Email him at apgarcia@freepress.com and follow him on X at @RealTonyGarcia.

Source link

Michigan

Michigan Lottery contributions over $1B to K-12 schools for 7th year in a row, state says

Published

1 day ago

January 7, 2026

Press Room

Michigan Lottery contributions over B to K-12 schools for 7th year in a row, state says

LANSING, MI – The Michigan Lottery’s annual contribution to K-12 education reached more than $1 billion for the seventh time in a row in 2025, according to the state.

The amount at $1.16 billion makes up roughly 5-6% of the state’s School Aid Fund, which has exceeded $20 billion in recent years.

It peaked in 2021 at $1.4 billion, according to the state budget office, marking a 78.4% increase in six years at the time. The reported portion for 2025 marks a slight decrease when compared to the previous five years.

In a release on Wednesday, Jan. 7, the state reported the total Lottery contribution had reached more than $30 billion since it began in 1972 and $8.7 billion within a seven-year span.

“In (2025), Lottery retailers earned more than $300 million in commissions for the sixth straight year,” Acting Lottery Commissioner Joe Froehlich said in a statement. “The support the Lottery provides to public education and to businesses throughout the state is critical and far-reaching.”

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s office utilized Wednesday’s announcement to recap the current state investment in K-12 schools based on the budget deal lawmakers green-lit in October three months after the current fiscal year was already underway.

That includes a 4.6% hike to $10,050 per student, $201.6 million to maintain a free universal meals program that Whitmer said saves “parents almost $1,000 a year per kid,” and a series of investments geared toward boosting literacy skills.

“This year’s lottery contributions will help build on that progress and make a difference for students, educators and schools across Michigan,” the governor said in a statement.

Other budget highlights included hundreds of millions in grants to reduce class sizes and school infrastructure, as well as for career-technical education and English-language learners.

Additionally, there was another $258.7 million boost to $1.3 billion for at-risk student supports and $321 million to support mental health and school safety initiatives ― the latter including a waiver requirement that spurred litigation from schools against the state in late 2025.

According to the Michigan Lottery, participating retailers earned more than $330 million in commissions for the 2025 fiscal year. Since 2019, when the Lottery’s streak of billion-dollar contributions to the School Aid Fund began, the state reported more than $2.3 billion in commissions.

Lottery products are sold at more than 10,000 locations across the state, and over 700 retailers sold $1 million or more last year in Lottery games.

Michigan residents took home more than $2.8 billion in prizes in 2025 and over $58 billion since the Lottery began.

According to the state, roughly 25 cents went to the School Aid Fund from every dollar spent on a Michigan Lottery Ticket, while 63 cents went to players as prizes, 9 cents to vendor commissions and 3 cents to the Lottery’s operations.

Source link