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Northern Michigan chamber alliance urges targeted state support for rural economic development
Summary
Representatives of the Northern Michigan Chamber Alliance told the Michigan House Committee on Economic Competitiveness that region-specific tools — from small-scale business incentives to employer-assisted housing and site-readiness funds — are critical to sustaining rural communities and helping the state grow.
Members of the Northern Michigan Chamber Alliance told the Michigan House Committee on Economic Competitiveness that Michigan must pair statewide resources with regionally tailored tools to sustain and grow rural economies.
Haley, speaking for the alliance, told the committee the group represents chambers across Northern Lower Michigan and the Upper Peninsula and that its purpose in Lansing was “to highlight what rural economic development means to us in our communities.”
The alliance framed its testimony around three themes: regionally driven development, workforce and talent, and “real prosperity” that ties together housing, childcare, health care and outdoor recreation as economic assets. “The thriving foundation of any community is 100% tied to its people,” said Nikki Devitt, president and CEO of the Petoskey Regional Chamber.
Presenters described programs and local projects they said illustrate how targeted state investments leverage private and local funding. Christopher Germain, CEO of the Lake Superior Community Partnership, cited public–private partnerships that demolished the former Marquette General Hospital with about $20,000,000 in public funding and which the alliance expects will support “hundreds of units of housing” on a 20-plus acre site adjacent to Northern Michigan University. Germain also highlighted a roughly $885,000 downtown redevelopment investment in Negaunee and the Build UP program, which the testimony said was seeded with $15,000,000 in state investment and has supported more than 200 housing units and local workforce-linked construction training.
Speakers told the committee that smaller-scale projects — 10 to 50 jobs in many cases — can have outsized economic impact in rural communities. The testimony cited Able Medical in Marquette as an example: a MEDC business-development incentive of $500,000 that the presenters said supported roughly 40–50 new jobs paying about 50% above the city’s median wage.
Tourism figures were offered as part of the economic picture: the alliance said more than $30 billion in visitor activity statewide in 2023 included significant contributions from the Upper Peninsula and northern regions, supporting more than 53,000 jobs and about $1.6 billion in direct wages; the testimony also cited 77.2 million day trips in the cited study and noted roughly 25% originated in the Detroit metro area.
Speakers praised existing state programs the alliance said work for rural places: the revitalization and placemaking (RAP) grants, which the alliance said have directed about $32,000,000 to projects in Northern Lower Michigan and the Upper Peninsula; the Office of Rural Prosperity, which the presenters said has drawn strong interest (they cited roughly 100 letters of intent requesting about $4.4 million); and SOAR site-readiness funds, which the alliance said include rural allocations that can be applied to smaller-scale site preparation.
Alliance members also urged state support for employer-assisted housing, saying local employers already are buying and converting properties to house workers and that a proposed $25,000,000 matching fund would accelerate those efforts.
Committee members asked a small number of follow-up questions about childcare, licensing capacity, and short-term rentals. Iosco County testimony — included in the alliance presentation — noted an aging population (a median age cited as 54), the recent loss of a hospital birthing unit, and a childcare capacity shortfall: the witnesses said 10,567 children ages 0–5 in Prosperity Region 3 include only 2,404 licensed childcare slots.
The alliance closed by asking committee members to keep rural program lines and regional allocations in mind as they consider budget and policy choices. “When you invest in rural Michigan, you’re gonna have a higher rate of return on that investment,” Haley said.
Less urgent details from the presentation included lists of awarded and pipeline projects (streetscaping, blight removal, small multifamily conversions), descriptions of local grant uses (water and sewer studies across municipal boundaries), and a set of workforce tools the alliance said had local success (apprenticeships, employer-driven upskilling grants, and childcare back-office services). The presenters offered to provide the committee with lists of funded projects and follow-up information on program outcomes.
