The founder of Auto Workers for Trump 2024 in Macomb County thanked President Trump and predicted auto plants will reopen over the next few years during a brief speech at the president’s “Liberation Day” at the White House.

Brian Pannebecker attended the event Wednesday in the Rose Garden along with many top federal officials and 20 Michigan UAW members. Pannebecker cited the group of auto workers, who responded with cheers, during his remarks after Trump invited him to the podium on stage.

“We support Donald Trump’s policies on tariffs 100%,” Pannebecker said, pointing to the group, which included Chris Vitale of St. Clair Shores. “In six months or a year, we’re going to begin seeing the benefits. I can’t wait to see what’s happening three-four years down the road.”

In asking him to come on stage, Trump said, “He’s been a fan of ours and he understands this business a lot better than the economists, a lot better than anybody.”

Pannebecker started his comments by noting he is from “north of Detroit, Macomb County, the home of the Reagan Democrats.”

“My first vote for president was for Ronald Reagan,” he said. “I thought that was going to be the best president ever in my lifetime. That was until Donald J. Trump came along.”

He described metro Detroit as a region of closed and idle auto plants.

“My entire life I have watched plant after plant after plant in Detroit and the Metro Detroit area close,” Pannebecke said. “There are now plants sitting idle, there are now plants under-utilized. Donald Trump’s policies are going to bring product back into these under-utilized plants. There’s going to be new investment, new plants built.”

After he left the stage, Trump said of Pannebecker, “He got it right from the beginning; he got it before almost anyone else, and they (referencing the auto union members in the audience) did, too.”

“You’re going to be happy very soon,” the president assured.

Pannebecker, a New Baltimore resident and Sterling Heights native, is a retired auto worker who spoke at a Trump rally last November and has organized many pro-Trump events in recent years.

Vitale is a St. Clair Shores city councilman and recently recent Stellantis employee who was one of the 20 UAW members invited to attend the ceremony

“It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” Vitale said before the event Wednesday morning from Washington D.C.. “They were looking for some autoworkers to show support, and I was picked to be one of them.”

Vitale said he is a strong supporter of Trump’s plans to heighten tariffs and has campaigned for them in the past. Like Pannebecker, he said he believes in the long run they will benefit the United States.

“My feeling is that the rest of the world is in a panic over these because they’ve been doing them to us for the past 60 years,” he said. “I would say in a year from now a lot of them probably won’t even be in place because the idea is to get those foreign governments to take down their tariffs on American products, level the playing field, so to speak, which is something I’ve been advocating for since 2008. Not looking for special treatment, just looking for equal treatment.”

He called the part of the negative reaction to tariffs “hair lighting on fire … nothing more than drama” because most products from Canada and Mexico initially will be exempt as part of the U.S.-Canada-Mexico Agreement. He called those reactions “scare stories.”

He said the explanation to support the tariffs is complex.

“What Trump is doing is fundamentally the right move,” he said.

Vitale paid for his trip, he said.

Vitale, who said he remains a member of the UAW, said he tested prototype drivetrains the last 10 years of his career at the Tech Center in Auburn Hills, and prior to that worked at other facilities for Fiat Chrysler Automobiles and Chrysler.

He was elected to City Council in November 2011 and was last re-elected in November 2023.

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By The Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump declared on Wednesday a 10% baseline tax on imports from all countries and higher tariff rates on dozens of nations that run trade surpluses with the United States, threatening to upend much of the architecture of the global economy and trigger broader trade wars.

Trump held up a chart while speaking at the White House, showing the United States would charge a 34% tax on imports from China, a 20% tax on imports from the European Union, 25% on South Korea, 24% on Japan and 32% on Taiwan.

The president used aggressive rhetoric to describe a global trade system that the United States helped to build after World War II, saying “our country has been looted, pillaged, raped, plundered” by other nations.

Trump declared a national economic emergency to launch the tariffs, expected to produce hundreds of billions in annual revenues. He has promised that factory jobs will return back to the United States as a result of the taxes, but his policies risk a sudden economic slowdown as consumers and businesses could face sharp price hikes on autos, clothes and other goods.

“Taxpayers have been ripped off for more than 50 years,” Trump said in remarks at the White House. “But it is not going to happen anymore.”

Trump was fulfilling a key campaign promise as he imposed what he called “reciprocal” tariffs on trade partners, acting without Congress through the 1977 International Emergency Powers Act in an extraordinary attempt to both break and ultimately reshape America’s trading relationship with the world.

The president’s higher rates would hit foreign entities that sell more goods to the United States than they buy, meaning the tariffs could stay in place for some time as the administration expects other nations to lower their tariffs and other barriers to trade that it says have led to a $1.2 trillion trade imbalance last year.

The tariffs follow similar recent announcements of 25% taxes on auto imports; levies against China, Canada and Mexico; and expanded trade penalties on steel and aluminum. Trump has also imposed tariffs on countries that import oil from Venezuela and he plans separate import taxes on pharmaceutical drugs, lumber, copper and computer chips.

None of the warning signs about a falling stock market or consumer sentiment turning morose have caused the administration to publicly second-guess its strategy, despite the risk of political backlash as voters in last year’s election said they wanted Trump to combat inflation.

Senior administration officials, who insisted on anonymity to preview the new tariffs with reporters ahead of Trump’s speech, said the taxes would raise hundreds of billions of dollars annually in revenues. They said the 10% baseline rate existed to help ensure compliance, while the higher rates were based on the trade deficits run with other nations and then halved to reach the numbers that Trump presented in the Rose Garden.

In a follow-up series of questions by The Associated Press, the White House could not say whether the tariff exemptions on imports worth $800 or less would remain in place, possibly shielding some imports from the new taxes.

Based on the possibility of broad tariffs that have been floated by some White House aides, most outside analyses by banks and think tanks see an economy tarnished by higher prices and stagnating growth.

Trump would be applying these tariffs on his own; he has ways of doing so without congressional approval. That makes it easy for Democratic lawmakers and policymakers to criticize the administration if the uncertainty expressed by businesses and declining consumer sentiment are signs of trouble to come.

Heather Boushey, a member of the Biden White House’s Council of Economic Advisers, noted that the less aggressive tariffs Trump imposed during his first term failed to stir the manufacturing renaissance he promised voters.

“We are not seeing indications of the boom that the president promised,” Boushey said. “It’s a failed strategy.”

Rep. Suzan DelBene, D-Wash., said the tariffs are “part of the chaos and dysfunction” being generated across the Trump administration. The chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee stressed that Trump should not have the sole authority to raise taxes as he intends without getting lawmakers’ approval, saying that Republicans so far have been “blindly loyal.”

“The president shouldn’t be able to do that,” DelBene said. “This is a massive tax increase on American families, and it’s without a vote in Congress … President Trump promised on the campaign trail that he would lower costs on day one. Now he says he doesn’t care if prices go up — he’s broken his promise.”

Even Republicans who trust Trump’s instincts have acknowledged that the tariffs could disrupt an economy with an otherwise healthy 4.1 % unemployment rate.

“We’ll see how it all develops,” said House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La. “It may be rocky in the beginning. But I think that this will make sense for Americans and help all Americans.”

Longtime trading partners are preparing their own countermeasures. Canada has imposed some in response to the 25% tariffs that Trump tied to the trafficking of fentanyl. The European Union, in response to the steel and aluminum tariffs, put taxes on 26 billion euros’ worth ($28 billion) of U.S. goods, including on bourbon, which prompted Trump to threaten a 200% tariff on European alcohol.

Many allies feel they have been reluctantly drawn into a confrontation by Trump, who routinely says America’s friends and foes have essentially ripped off the United States with a mix of tariffs and other trade barriers.

The flip side is that Americans also have the incomes to choose to buy designer gowns by French fashion houses and autos from German manufacturers, whereas World Bank data show the EU has lower incomes per capita than the U.S.

“Europe has not started this confrontation,” said European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. “We do not necessarily want to retaliate but, if it is necessary, we have a strong plan to retaliate and we will use it.”

Italy’s premier, Giorgia Meloni, on Wednesday reiterated her call to avoid an EU-US trade war, saying it would harm both sides and would have “heavy” consequences for her country’s economy.

Because Trump had hyped his tariffs without providing specifics until Wednesday, he provided a deeper sense of uncertainty for the world, a sign that the economic slowdown could possibly extend beyond U.S. borders to other nations that would see one person to blame.

Ray Sparnaay, general manager of JE Fixture & Tool, a Canadian tool and die business that sits across the Detroit River, said the uncertainty has crushed his company’s ability to make plans.

“There’s going to be tariffs implemented. We just don’t know at this point,” he said Monday. “That’s one of the biggest problems we’ve had probably the last — well, since November — is the uncertainty. It’s basically slowed all of our quoting processes, business that we hope to secure has been stalled.”

By David WelchBloomberg

Brittany Humphries and her husband Jon Bassford are what sales people at car dealerships might call motivated buyers. The couple, who live in suburban Maryland outside Washington, DC, moved swiftly to lock in purchases this year to avoid the risk of paying thousands of dollars more once Trump administration policies on electric vehicles and tariffs fully kick in.

The couple’s story presages a buying boom as people rush to get ahead of the 25% tariff hike on imported vehicles that President Donald Trump announced on March 26, which is set to go into effect on April 3.

By the end of February, Humphries, 38, had traded in her 2022 Hyundai Kona crossover for a new $44,000 Acura Integra compact and her 42-year-old husband swapped his Acura MDX SUV for a lease on a $72,000 all-electric ZDX SUV.

Those transactions helped power strong first-quarter new car sales ahead of White House moves to disrupt the auto industry’s status quo.

“We just don’t want to be part of Trump’s game,” Humphries said.

The promised tariffs could jack up sticker prices once current inventories are depleted.

The first indication of a wider upswell in demand will come Tuesday, when major automakers such as General Motors Co. and Toyota Motor Corp. release new car sales data for the latest quarter. Tesla Inc. is expected to detail its global delivery numbers for the period on April 2.

Trump told reporters at a White House briefing on Friday that Americans shouldn’t rush out to buy cars ahead of the tariffs. But that doesn’t appear to be deterring motivated buyers.

“Savvy consumers are likely attempting to get ahead of future uncertainty surrounding auto pricing levels by taking advantage of March deals,” Chris Hopson, principal analyst at S&P Global Mobility, said in a statement. “Downside risks to the auto demand and production environment abound as consumers face potential higher auto prices as a result of expected tariffs.”

Import models – including those shipped from Canada and Mexico – make up about half of overall US sales. And many vehicles made in the US use a lot of imported parts. But it’s unclear exactly how much of a levy will be charged on specific vehicles and also how much of that extra cost – which is estimated to be as much as $12,000 for some models – will be born by consumers. The burden from previous tariff hikes and Covid-era supply chain disruptions was spread out among automakers, parts suppliers and car buyers over a period of years.

Cars already are more expensive than just a few years ago, giving pause even to some affluent buyers. Average new vehicle transaction prices hit $47,373 in February, according to car-shopping website Edmunds. Fear that prices can only go up with Trump’s latest tariffs is driving more people to move up their timeline for buying a new car, said Sam Fiorani, vice president of global vehicle forecasting at market research firm AutoForecast Solutions.

“The idea that cars might be more expensive in April has been all over the news,” he said.

A similar trend boosted car sales in the final quarter of 2024 as buyers rushed to sign paperwork for electric vehicles eligible for tax credits Trump has started to curb. That helped automakers end 2024 on a bullish note, with sales up 2.2% to 15.9 million vehicles for the year, marking the highest level since 2019, according to Wards Intelligence.

Edmunds projects first quarter sales will continue that upward trend, rising 1% to 3.8 million vehicles – the strongest start to the year since 2021. That number likely reflects some sales pulled forward by trade policy concerns, but also reflects healthy overall demand and supply in the market, according to Jessica Caldwell, an analyst at Edmunds. Price hikes and inventory disruptions tied to trade policy may start to weigh on auto sales beginning in April, she said.

“If you’re looking to buy a car in the next, I’d say, month, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to get a car as soon as possible,” Caldwell said in a Bloomberg TV interview.

Most major automakers sell vehicles sourced from multiple countries, with some brands more dependent on foreign-made models than others. Many of the cheapest vehicles are imported, something that could soon put many cars out of reach for entry-level buyers.

Faith Johnson, a 30-year-old dental assistant living in metro Detroit, has been looking to buy a new car because her current vehicle, a used Ford Explorer, is having engine trouble even after $5,000 in repairs. She’s been saving for a down payment on a new car since November, and has about $2,000 in cash saved up so far.

“Things are just super expensive,” said Johnson. “Now you have to come up with even more money because of the tariffs? That is insane.”

Researcher Cox Automotive projects sales growth to continue into the first three months of 2025, with a seasonally-adjusted annualized sales rate of 15.8 million vehicles. Prior to Trump’s tariff announcement, Cox expected 16.3 million vehicles would be sold for the full year. But that may drop once tariffs are imposed.

“It will be a squandered opportunity as we were poised for continuing growth” this year, Jonathan Smoke, Cox Automotive chief economist, said in a March 26 webcast. “Our quarterly survey of dealer sentiment showed positive momentum at the end of 2024.”

It was 40 years ago that L. Brooks Patterson organized a golf outing as a way of turning a heartbreaking tragedy into something beautiful. What began as a gesture to honor a friend and his children killed in a plane crash planted a seed that grew into The Rainbow Connection.

Its mission to brighten the lives of sick children and their families by providing them with fun, joy, comfort and inspiration during their darkest days has been growing ever since.

“We get to grant wishes to brave and wonderful Michiganders,” said Ingrid Todt, executive director of the Rainbow Connection, who was a college intern when she started working for the charity. “I did a picnic for a wish family and fell in love with the work.

“I’ve been here ever since.”

Since the first wish in 1985, granted to a 16-year-old patient at Children’s Hospital of Michigan who wanted to meet the legendary Muhammad Ali, more than 4,300 children have had wishes granted.

One that Todt will always remember had her traveling to Washington, D.C. at Christmas-time with Adam, a 12-year-old boy who wanted to meet President George W. Bush.

“He had a very old soul and just wanted to see what it was like to have a conversation with a president in the White House,” said Todt, who remembers the trip came up suddenly and Patterson, who served as Oakland County Executive for more than 26 years before his death in 2019, secured a private jet to get the boy and his family there in time.

It was a dream come true.

Adam was ushered into the Roosevelt Room where he and his family not only met with the President and First Lady but were given enough time to have the conversation he always wanted.

Wishes are granted through a process that involves a referral by hospital staff or online application. Once the application is approved, Rainbow Connection staff will set up a meeting to discuss what sort of wish the child might like.

“It’s usually something to do with going somewhere, meeting someone, or receiving something,” Todt said, remembering a young girl who wanted a shopping spree, another child going to the Super Bowl and one little girl who had her photo taken with the entire Dallas Cowboys cheerleader squad.

Medicine has come a long way so many children with life-threatening illnesses are doing much better than previous generations, but they have to go through so much to get to that point.

“The wishes give them the opportunity to focus on something amazing and fun during their journey,” said Todt.

For Scarlett Morales, 17, of Clinton Township, who is battling cancer,  a trip to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Orlando with her parents and young sister was exactly what she needed.

“At the prime of Scarlett’s teenage years (age 16) she got diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia,” said Scarlett’s mother, Estela Morales. “We felt like our world was collapsing. We did not know what to expect with this new journey. As the initial weeks of treatment started to become more intense she started to feel like she was in a hopeless hole.”

That’s when she got a wish.

“When Scarlett was informed that a wish could be granted she did not know what to ask for,” Estela said, adding her daughter has always been a very grateful young lady and even something as simple as a popsicle would bring about a smile so she was a little dumbfounded by the offer.

However, after meeting with the Rainbow Connection and thinking about how her illness affected her sister she decided on a trip that would create memories for everyone in her family.

“We all went on an adventure of a lifetime,” Estela said.

Scarlett concurred.

“My happiest moment was to see all of us enjoying our time together, especially when my little sister Leah got to meet the character Stitch,” Scarlett said. “The Rainbow Connection is a magnificent organization and thanks to many generous people is able to make children’s wishes come true.”

One recipient who battled cancer as a child and grew up to become a health care professional said the charity provided her and her family with moments that impacted her life long after granting her a wish.

“This organization becomes an integral part of your family, providing financial support if needed, special events for the families until 18, scholarships for trade school/community college/University and more,” Jennifer said, in a testimonial recalling her wish 20 years ago.

“I’m never going to make a ton of money,” Todt said, of her role as the executive director of a nonprofit. “But I could never imagine doing anything else.”

For more information visit rainbowconnection.org/.

Max Reinhart, The Detroit News

State officials said they’ve almost exhausted the 313 area code and Detroiters will have to start dialing the full 10-digit phone number, even for local calls, starting in October.

Beginning Oct. 7, all local calls made within the 313 area code footprint must use all 10 digits. Calls placed with only seven digits won’t be completed and callers will receive a message asking them to disconnect and try their call again, the Michigan Public Service Commission (MPSC) said in a press release Monday.

Telephone service providers can begin issuing an “overlay area code,” 679, to new phone customers in the 313 area, which includes Detroit and several of its closest suburbs, starting Nov. 7. This means callers must dial all 10-digits in order for their call to go through, MSPS said.

To give customers time to get used to the change, a six-month “permissive dialing” period will begin April 7. From then until Oct. 7, local calls can be made by dialing either the seven- or 10-digit number.

New phone lines or services will only be assigned numbers using the new 679 area code after all 313 numbers are exhausted, which isn’t projected to happen until late in 2027. However, MPSC said that timing is subject to change depending on demand, and new lines could be assigned the 679 area code as early as Nov. 7, 2025.

Customers who currently have a number with a 313 area code will be able to keep their existing phone number, MPSC said.

All calls currently considered local will remain so, MPSC said, and callers will continue to dial 1, plus the area code, for long-distance calls.

The price of a call, coverage area or other rates and services will not change due to the overlay, the commission said.

Special three-digit numbers like 911 and 988 will be unchanged.

Phone customers are encouraged to identify their telephone number as a 10-digit number and include the area code when giving the number to friends, family, business associates, customers and others.

Callers should also ensure that all services, automatic dialing equipment, applications, software or other types of equipment are reprogrammed to dial 10 digits if they are currently programmed to dial seven digits and to recognize the new 679 area code as a valid area code. Examples include life-safety systems, fax machines, Internet dial-up numbers, gates, speed dialers, mobile phone contact lists, call forwarding settings and voicemail services.

“Be sure to check your business stationery, advertising materials, personal checks, and your personal or pet ID tags to ensure the area code is included in your telephone number,” MPSC said.

Important safety and security equipment like medical alert devices, alarms and security systems may also need to be reprogrammed, between April 7 and Oct. 7, to use 10-digit dialing. Many systems use 10 digits by default, but older equipment may not, the state said. Anyone unsure about this should contact the service provider.

mreinhart@detroitnews.com

For the first time in more than 100 years, cougar cubs have been discovered living in the Michigan wild.

State biologists on Wednesday confirmed the existence of two cougar cubs on private land in Ontonagon County in the western Upper Peninsula. The spotted cubs, believed to be 7 to 9 weeks old, were verified from photographic evidence of the cubs taken March 6 by a local resident.

This is the first time cougar cubs have been verified since the big cats were hunted out of existence in Michigan in the early 1900s, said Brian Roell, large carnivore specialist for the Michigan Department of Natural Resources. Roell, a wildlife biologist for 26 years, led the team that verified the cubs.

“It’s pretty exciting, considering this could be the first known cougar reproduction in modern times in the western Great Lakes states,” said Roell, referring to Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota. “It really shows that we have a unique place in Michigan where someone has a chance to see a wolf, a moose and a cougar in the wild. It’s something that should be celebrated, that we have the habitat to support an elusive animal like this.”

The cubs were spotted and photographed without their mother. Cougar cubs are highly dependent on their mothers, often staying with them for the first two years of life.

Although cougars are native to Michigan, most of them now appear to be transient animals, dispersing into Michigan from Western states. The DNR has verified 132 adult cougar reports, Roell said, but DNA testing has confirmed only male cougars to date.

The cubs have not been spotted since March 6. “Those young cougars are very vulnerable right now,” Roell said. “We don’t know where they are or if they’re even alive. Mother Nature can be very cruel.”

Sightings can be logged in the DNR’s Eyes in the Field reporting system. Roell said cougars are on the list of endangered mammals in Michigan, meaning it’s illegal to hunt or harass them, which includes trying to locate their den. It’s also illegal to trespass on private property, he noted.

For the latest information on cougars, including the DNR’s cougar sightings photo page, visit Michigan.gov/Cougar.

LANSING, Mich. (AP) — The Michigan Supreme Court announced its justices have selected a new chief justice with the upcoming departure of the current incumbent.

The justices unanimously selected Megan Cavanagh to succeed Elizabeth Clement when she steps down, according to a Thursday announcement from the court. In February, Clement announced her intention to retire from the court before the end of April.

“The Court decided to make the choice now to ensure that the transition will be as smooth as possible and to confirm that our commitment to the path the Court is on will not waver,” Cavanagh said in a statement.

Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has the opportunity to appoint a justice to fill Clement’s vacancy and create a 6-1 majority of Democratic-backed justices. Whoever is appointed must run for retention in 2026 for a full eight-year term.

Michigan’s justices are technically nonpartisan, but they are nominated by state parties or appointed by the governor in the case of a vacancy. The court currently has a 5-2 majority of justices backed by Democrats after picking up a seat in the November election.

Cavanagh, backed by Democrats, narrowly beat out an incumbent justice in 2018. She is up for another term in 2026.

Clement was appointed to the Supreme Court in 2017 by Republican Gov. Rick Snyder. She is leaving to join the National Center for State Courts as president.

“I believe strongly that collaboration and cooperation are the keys to building public trust in our branch of government,” Cavanagh said.

ALEX VEIGA, The Associated Press

Detroit-based mortgage lender Rocket Cos. has agreed to acquire online real estate brokerage Redfin in an all-stock deal valued at $1.75 billion.

The transaction, announced Monday, gives one of the nation’s largest mortgage lenders an in-house network of more than 2,000 real estate agents across 42 states and Redfin’s popular home and rental housing listings platform, which draws nearly 50 million monthly visitors.

The deal values Redfin at $12.50 per share. Shares in Seattle-based Redfin soared 68.5% in morning trading to $9.81 per share, while shares in Detroit-based Rocket Cos. slumped 15%.

Rocket expects the acquisition will save the company $140 million in costs by eliminating duplicative operations and other expenses. Rocket also anticipates the move will boost revenue by more than $60 million by enabling the company to connect its clients with Redfin’s agents and, ultimately, offering those customers other real estate services that Rocket provides, including title insurance and loan servicing.

Redfin CEO Glenn Kelman is expected to remain at the helm of the real estate brokerage, reporting to Rocket’s CEO, the companies said.

Under the terms of the deal, each share of Redfin common stock will be exchanged for a fixed ratio of 0.7926 shares of Rocket Cos. Class A common stock, which represents a premium of 63% over the volume weighted average price of Redfin’s common stock for the 30 days ended March 7.

Once finalized, current Rocket Cos. shareholders will own roughly 95% of the combined company on a fully diluted basis, while Redfin shareholders will own about 5%, the companies said.

The companies’ board of directors have already approved the transaction, though Redfin shareholders still have to sign off on the sale. The companies expect the transaction to close in the second or third quarter this year.

A Delta Air Lines landing at Wayne County Detroit Metropolitan Airport was more problematic than anticipated after the pilot was forced to abort an attempt to land.

The plane did have a safe landing on the second attempt.

According to a statement from the airline, Delta flight 1648 arrived at Metro Airport Thursday evening from Denver.

A spokeswoman did not include the number of passengers on the flight in the statement.

The statement said the pilot was instructed by air traffic control to execute a “go-around procedure.”

It did not, however, explain what a go-around procedure is and why it was necessary.

A request for a more detailed explanation for the abrupt procedure was made, but one has not yet been provided.

It appears the plane looped around, made another approach and was able to land without interference.

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By Anne Snabes, The Detroit News

Detroit — The regional water authority’s board bowed to public pressure Wednesday by reducing its proposed water rate hike, but it still increased the water and sewer rates more than it has done in its decade-long history.

The pressure was enough that Great Lakes Water Authority officials decreased the proposed water rate late at its meeting. The board unanimously approved a 5.9% hike for water and a 4.5% hike for the sewer part of its passage of the organization’s fiscal year 2026 and 2027 budgets.

The authority that serves 112 communities across eight counties in southeast Michigan originally proposed increasing its wholesale water rates by an average of 7.73% and sewer rates by an average of 5.39% for the 2026 fiscal year, which begins July 1.

Last year, GLWA approved increases of 3.25% for water and 3% for wastewater services.

Dozens of Metro Detroit residents passionately pleaded with the six-member GLWA board against boosting the rates. They argued they were already besieged by rising prices for the basics of living, and this proposal would be a further burden.

“I implore you, the Great Lakes Water Authority: Stop doing these increases on these residents ― on people who are already financially strapped,” Detroit resident Rochella Stewart said on Zoom.

The meeting marked the first time that the regional authority could raise water and sewer rates above a 4% cap — known as the 4% promise — imposed when GLWA was formed in 2014 in the wake of Detroit’s bankruptcy filing in 2013.

The policy had resulted in hikes for fiscal year 2024 of 2.75% each for water and sewer services. But the 4% cap commitment ends June 30.

GLWA officials had justified the original increases as needed to finance long-overdue capital improvements and rapidly escalating costs of items like chemicals. As recently as 2023, authority officials said keeping the commitment to limit budget increases to 4% or below was “incredibly challenging.”

But Nicolette Bateson, GLWA’s chief financial officer and treasurer, presented rates during Wednesday’s public hearing that were lower than those originally proposed. She urged the board to raise water rates 6.5% and sewer rates 4.5%, a change that she indicated was made in the past two weeks after the initial proposal was publicized.

Bateson said Wednesday this is “a very difficult year.”

But residents, many from Detroit and some from other communities such as Highland Park and Livonia, spoke out even against the revised rate hike proposal, contending it was unaffordable.

Later in the meeting, after the hours of public comment had ended, Bateson proposed lowering the water increase further to 5.9%. The board then approved the final proposal.

Board Chairman Mark Miller, a representative of the state of Michigan, thanked the GLWA staff for “the long hours” they put into the budget.

“No one ever gets everything, but you try to find the common ground that’s palatable for most,” Miller said. “So I think we’re good here.”

Residents oppose rate hikes

The GLWA Board of Directors met on the 5th Floor Board Room of the Water Board Building at 735 Randolph Street in Detroit, but over 200 participants were also on the Zoom call for the meeting.

Stewart of Detroit said residents already are “financially strapped” with housing, utilities and gas costs. Another Detroiter, Tommy Airey, also opposed the proposed increases, arguing that residents shouldn’t even have to pay for the necessities of life.

“If you believe in love, compassion, truth, justice, you would not even dream of raising these rates. In fact, you would lower the rates so that water would be affordable ― in fact, free for every resident of this city,” Airey said.

GLWA officials said the proposed increases are needed to cover capital investments and maintenance that have been deferred for several years, along with corrosion controls in its water.

“It’s a transition from many years of low-inflation adjustments, and there’s some economic realities that we face,” Bateson said.

Several public commenters brought up the recent water main break in southwest Detroit. A 54-inch steel water transmission line owned by GLWA burst at 2 a.m. Feb. 17. More than 250 homes had either flooded basements or lost power, according to Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan’s office. Repairs are expected to continue through the rest of next week, according to a GLWA release issued Wednesday.

“To increase water rates at a time when Detroiters have suffered flooded neighborhoods, which ultimately turn into ice prisons … ― most tragically in southwest Detroit ― is unfathomable,” said Tawana Petty.

Bateson referred to it “as a devastating event.” The region’s water infrastructure is aging, and the pipe that broke was nearly 100 years old, she said.

“Unfortunately, the water system is solely dependent on the end consumer to cover the cost — not our choice, not our wish,” Bateson said. “We spend a lot of time talking to policymakers, explaining to them that the critical assets that are vital to life that they can’t see need grants, low-cost loans, and to be able to allow us to do proactive measures” to try to prevent these catastrophes.

Bateson told The Detroit News that GLWA changed its proposed budget earlier this month because pension costs rose. GLWA also decided to lower the proposed rates ― making them 6.5% for water and 4.5% for sewer ― by revisiting how it manages its debt, she said.

Gary Brown, a GLWA board member and Detroit’s Sewerage and Water Department director, said at the meeting the rate hikes are “not as low as most people would want,” but he feels they “will fit the needs of affordability in the city of Detroit.”

Whether the proposed increases for the 2026 fiscal year will be passed on to the region’s residents is to be determined. GLWA charges cities and townships for water and sewage treatment, and then local governments set their own rates for customers.

Some mayors and township supervisors told The News before the meeting that they expect to raise rates for residents by less than GLWA’s originally proposed hikes. The Southeastern Oakland County Water Authority said it would have no choice but to pass the hikes on to its member communities in Oakland County, which include Berkley, Royal Oak and Ferndale.

Oakland County Water Resources Commissioner Jim Nash said earlier this month the rate increases varied widely every year before the GLWA was created, sometimes going up to 12%. While the regional authority never raised rates by more than 4% over the past 10 years, Nash said he had concerns that the rates sometimes weren’t raised enough.

While those decisions were “good for ratepayers,” Nash said, they may not have been enough in the long run “to make sure you’re bringing enough money to do the capital projects … the maintenance projects where you’re making sure that everything works right, and then the operations.”

Anne Snabes and Hannah Mackay, Tribune News Service

The Great Lakes Water Authority is considering adopting the highest water and sewer rate increases in its 10-year history as a 4% cap on higher prices ends this summer.

The authority that serves 112 communities across eight counties in southeast Michigan has proposed increasing its wholesale water rates by an average of 7.73% and 5.39% for sewer rates for the 2026 fiscal year, which begins July 1. The authority’s board of directors is slated to vote on these charges during its Feb. 26 meeting.

Great Lakes Water Authority officials say the increases are needed to cover capital investments and maintenance that have been deferred for several years, along with corrosion controls in its water.

But some local leaders said the raises are higher than they would have liked and come when residents are already struggling with higher costs because of inflation. Eric Griffin, general manager of the Southeastern Oakland County Water Authority, called the proposed water rate increase “significant.” SOCWA contracts with GLWA to provide water services to 13 communities, including Berkley, Southfield and Royal Oak.

“There’s significant infrastructure investments necessary, whether or not that requires a seven and a half percent increase this year — I’m not sure,” Griffin said. “I think there needs to be more justification of the 7.5%.”

Demeeko Williams, founder and chief director of Hydrate Detroit, a water-relief nonprofit organization, said it is the wrong time for rate increases.

“Why are we raising rates when people are struggling to keep jobs, opportunity and such?” Williams asked. “… People are already struggling. That adds on to our water bills. People can’t afford their water bills.”

Williams hopes water affordability will be a priority and said that GLWA, the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department, and water departments around the region need to be more conscious of their neighbors.

The increases are being weighed as a 10-year commitment the GLWA made when it was founded in 2014, called the 4% Promise, expires on June 30. As recently as 2023, the authority said that keeping the commitment to limit budget increases to 4% or below was “incredibly challenging.”

Last year, GLWA approved increases of 3.25% for water and 3% for wastewater services. The hikes were lower for fiscal year 2024 at 2.75% each for water and sewer services. The authority said rate adjustments for water have averaged 2.9% for water over the last nine years and 1.7% for sewer.

Whether the proposed increases will be passed on to residents is to be determined, though SOCWA says it’ll have no choice but to pass the hikes on to its member communities in Oakland County. GLWA charges cities and townships for water and sewage treatment, and then local governments set their own rates for customers. Some mayors and township supervisors said they expect to raise rates for residents by less than GLWA’s hikes.

Nicolette Bateson, GLWA’s chief financial officer and treasurer, said that during the COVID-19 pandemic, the cost of some chemicals and construction materials shot up.

“Looking at this charge increase does not come from us as an easy ask in any way, but we really feel it’s the right thing to do for the system,” she said, “because … we have deferred some maintenance, we have put off some capital projects, and it’s not necessarily responsible for us to continue to do that.”

The authority said it is also spending an estimated $6 million on corrosion controls in its water and is paying half of the cost of a multiyear flood mitigation study with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Oakland County Water Resources Commissioner Jim Nash recalled that rate increases varied widely every year before the GLWA was created, sometimes going up to 12%. While the GLWA never raised rates by more than 4% over the past 10 years, Nash had concerns that they sometimes weren’t raised enough.

“A few years, we were a little concerned that they didn’t raise it enough,” Nash said. “And that’s good for ratepayers, but in the long run, you have to make sure you’re bringing enough money to do the capital projects, … the maintenance projects where you’re making sure that everything works right, and then the operations.”

Nash thinks part of the more than 7% rate increase is making up for the lack of increases over the past 10 years.

“It’s tied to the projects they need to do to make sure that we have the infrastructure we need,” Nash said. “Old infrastructure is being replaced.”

GLWA explains the rate hikes

When the Great Lake Water Authority was created in 2014 in the wake of Detroit’s bankruptcy after the Detroit Department of Sewerage and Water essentially ran the regional system that had customers as far north as Flint, a memorandum of understanding restricted annual budget increases to 4% for its first 10 years of operation. Under the bankruptcy exit plan, Detroit’s water department agreed to lease its assets to the new authority.

Bateson, GLWA’s chief financial officer and treasurer, said the memorandum of understanding limited budget increases to 4%, but not necessarily sewer and water charges.

“But the theory is: if you’re keeping your budget under control, you’re also keeping charges under control,” she said.

The authority started seeing high-cost increases in 2022, including jumps in the price of steel and chlorine. The authority responded by leveraging its investment earnings and refinancing bonds.

“So we’ve done all of these things, but when you still see 55-80% increases … you know the math doesn’t add up,” she said. “And we’re facing continued increase in our infrastructure costs, particularly on the water system. We have a lot of large construction projects underway right now.”

GLWA is also spending money on its orthophosphate program. Public water systems commonly add phosphates to drinking water to prevent the release of toxic metals in the water, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

Michelle Zdrodowski, chief public affairs officer for GLWA, said the authority doesn’t have lead in its pipes, but there is lead in some local communities’ pipes. She said GLWA has increased the amount of orthophosphate it puts into the water, which helps local communities protect their own systems and residents protect the pipes in their homes.

Bateson said GLWA has been talking with the communities it serves about rate increases for the last couple of years, so “it’s not a surprise.”

“But at the end of the day, nobody likes a charge increase,” she said. “We don’t like asking for a charge increase.”

GLWA said its annual water rate increases have averaged 2.9% in the nine years from 2018 to 2026, while the sewer service charges have risen an average of 1.7%. The lowest increase for water was 0.6% in 2020, while the authority cut sewer rates by 0.6% in 2022 and by 0.7% in 2018.

Nick Sheeran, a homeowner in Sterling Heights and an electrician, said that addressing deferred maintenance “makes sense.”

“I’d rather see money spent like that because there will be, especially with these construction projects ― it is putting people to work,” he said. “And that’s probably, in my opinion, the best way that you can spend the money, if you’re going to have to spend it.”

SOCWA responds to rate hikes

The Southeastern Oakland County Water Authority is the largest model contract customer of GLWA, representing about 14% of the utility’s revenue, said Griffin, SOCWA’s general manager.

Nearly 90% of SOCWA’s budget goes toward GLWA costs, and Griffin said they will have no choice but to make its member communities pay more for water and sewer services, which will impact residents directly.

“I have no alternative but to pass that increase on to my communities, and they’re going to be forced to pass those increases to their residents,” Griffin said. “So the bottom line is … that is where the increase is going to hit, and 7.5% is a big increase.”

Jim Breuckman, the city manager of Pleasant Ridge, one of SOCWA’s member communities, was not surprised at the rate increases.

“Water systems are contending with secular declines in water usage, while infrastructure ages and requires costly maintenance and upkeep,” Breuckman said.

‘I hate to burden people further’

Ken Siver, the mayor of Southfield, which is part of SOCWA, said “nobody wants to pay more” and noted that for some people, the current rates “have been a challenge.” They have cut back on their water use.

“On the other hand, I know that it’s not the water ― it’s the system, and for years, the system … had been neglected,” he said.

Siver said his city used to have water main breaks “constantly,” but the city has been doing a major overhaul of its water mains. He said he is “kind of torn” about the GLWA rate increases.

“We have to invest, and at the same time, I hate to burden people further,” he said, “but … you just can’t keep ignoring the needs of the system.”

Rates to be determined

From Grosse Pointe Woods to Plymouth Township, several local officials said even though the wholesale rates are higher than they would’ve liked, they still have to set their own rates.

Grosse Pointe Woods Mayor Arthur Bryant said his community hasn’t increased rates in five years because it had built up surplus water and sewer funds. But he thinks the city will have to enact a raise this time.

“Nobody likes an increase,” he said. “I don’t personally like an increase because I have to pay the same thing everyone else does, but I think we’ll work our way through it OK.”

In Plymouth Township — which gets its water from GLWA, but it doesn’t use the authority’s sewer services; it instead uses Ypsilanti Community Utilities Authority — Supervisor Charles Curmi said the amount that the township raises its water rates partly depends on the financial position of its water department.

“And it does not always reflect exactly what Great Lakes Water Authority has increased,” he said. For each of the last six years, Plymouth Township has either not raised rates or increased them by less than GLWA’s hikes.

Police were called after someone at a Wayne County business was contacted by a man impersonating Wayne County Sheriff Raphael Washington in an attempt to get money from him.

The incident occurred at about 12:30 p.m. on Feb. 12 and was reported by a doctor at the Woodhaven Animal Hospital.

According to police, the conversation was recorded and officers have a telephone number associated with the call.

It is being investigated.

The doctor told officers that the first call came through on the hospital’s business line at about 11:47 a.m. that day.

Records show that the caller identified himself as Raphael Washington and said he needed to speak with the veterinarian, mentioning him by name, regarding an urgent matter.

They did not connect at that time.

The veterinarian received a second call on his personal cellphone.

When he answered the call, the caller again identified himself as Raphael Washington and informed the doctor that he missed jury duty and has a warrant for contempt of court.

The veterinarian informed the man he never received a jury summons and the caller said a jury summons was sent to an address in Hazel Park, however, the doctor said he never lived in Hazel Park.

The caller told the veterinarian that he needed to get in his car and drive to the sheriff’s office immediately or deputies would be sent to his place of employment.

He also told the veterinarianwhen he arrives he is not to get out of his vehicle until a $5,000 contempt of court warrant is paid.

Police said a background check through the law enforcement information network showed that the veterinarian does not have any outstanding warrants.

The detective bureau is investigating the case.

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The accomplice in a notorious murder case will receive a court hearing in June for the possibility of a new trial mostly due to multiple issues that may have occurred at the first trial.

Robert Taylor, 32, who is serving a life-in-prison sentence for the 2009 abduction and slaying of Matthew Landry, is scheduled for an evidentiary hearing June 13 in front of Judge Diane Druzinski of Macomb Circuit Court in Mount Clemens.

Taylor won the hearing based on the claims by his appellate attorney that his trial attorney, the late Louis Zaidan, was not told about an October 2010 letter an assistant Macomb prosecutor sent to a Wayne County judge asking for leniency for a key witness, Fred Singleton, in a burglary case there, and were not told about a deal with another witness, Thaser Toma Sadur. Therefore, Zaidan would not have been able to try to impeach the witnesses, according to Druzinski’s three-page opinion issued Jan. 31.

In addition, Taylor’s attorney says he passed a polygraph that contradicted the testimony of those witnesses, Druzinski says.

Singleton, who was a drug addict at the time, was the last known person to see Landry alive and can place Taylor with his co-defendant, Ihab Maslamani, with Landry on the night of Landry’s murder in August 2009 in a drug house next to the abandoned home where Landry’s body was found.

“Mike” Sadur testified about incriminating statements Taylor allegedly made to him while both were incarcerated at the county jail, according to a court document.

Druzinski also cites the argument that the jury should have been given an instruction about an “addict informer’s testimony.” The instruction in part tells the jury, “You may consider evidence of the defendant’s words, acts, or omissions, along with all the other evidence, in deciding whether the defendant acted knowingly.”

The case drew widespread public attention while Landry was missing, and during the immediate aftermath of it and subsequent court proceedings, including two trials.

Taylor was convicted in December 2010 of first-degree murder, carjacking, kidnapping, two counts of conspiracy and felony firearm possession for the Aug. 9, 2009, slaying of Landry, 21, of Chesterfield Township, from a single gunshot fired by Masalamani, following a jury trial.

Masalmani (also spelled as Maslamani in documents), 33, was convicted three months earlier by a jury in a separate trial of those charges in addition to other charges for his three-day crime spree that also included a Harrison Township bank robbery and Roseville carjacking that followed Landry’s kidnapping and murder.

Both Masalmani and Taylor were juveniles, 16 and 17, at the time of the slaying but tried as adults. They are supposed to be sentenced for a third time in the case due to rulings related to the U.S. Supreme Court 2012 decision in Miller v. Alabama to outlaw automatic life-without-parole sentences for juvenile murder convicts. The high court says judges must consider a variety of factors in determining whether to sentence a juvenile murder convict to life without parole or a term of years, which in Michigan is between 25 and 60 years. (The state Supreme Court issued a ruling in Taylor’s case in 2022).

Taylor and Masalmani were resentenced in 2015 to life without parole, following sentencings hearings that featured testimony and arguments.

But third sentences were ordered by higher courts. Appeals judges ruled in 2023 that Taylor could still be sentenced to life without parole if Druzinski provides sufficient explanation of “clear and convincing evidence” Taylor was actively involved in the slaying as an aider and abettor.

The judge is permitted to hold another sentencing hearing at which the facts of the incident, the defendants’ upbringings, their “incapacities of youth” and their chance at rehabilitation could be raised, according to the ruling.

Before Taylor was to be sentenced a third time, his attorney filed a relief-from-judgment legal motion related to the discovery of the new information regarding the two witnesses, polygraph and jury instruction. The third sentencing would be postponed or cancelled depending on the outcome of a second trial.

Meanwhile, Masalmani is still scheduled to be sentenced again in October.

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