The House Committee on Government Operations on an unspecified date heard testimony on a package of bills to modernize Children Trust Michigan and adjust how the nonprofit uses and manages its state trust fund. Witnesses described CTM's prevention-focused work across every Michigan county, recent funding cuts after federal ARPA support ended, and operational challenges for a 15-member statewide board.

Children Trust Michigan board chair Amy Tattery Lapp told the committee that CTM's 2025 budget is "just over $4,000,000" and that the organization receives most revenue from a state-established trust fund, federal community-based child abuse prevention funds, and fundraising. She said "we are not in the state budget as it stands except for $200,000" for retiree health benefits. Tattery Lapp said ARPA funding previously expanded CTM's work but "as the funding ended" CTM and partners have had to make cuts, including staff layoffs.

The bills discussed include provisions that Tattery Lapp summarized to the committee: HB4807 would amend the Child Abuse and Neglect Prevention Act to update language and explicitly allow CTM to partner with a 501(c)(3); HB4805 would amend the statute that governs the children's trust fund to allow, in certain circumstances, taking up to 8% (currently 5%) while maintaining a $23,500,000 corpus; HB4806 would make vehicle-code cleanup language related to CTM license plates; and HB4808 would amend the Open Meetings Act to permit remote participation while preserving in-person meetings.

Tattery Lapp said the proposed 8% withdrawal authority would be intended for economic downturns or major budget issues and that CTM is working with the state Treasury Department to adopt policies and safeguards. "The intent is not that we would take that 8 percent every every year at all," she said. She added that the organization had discussed audit-language changes and that language related to a bidding requirement was removed in a Senate S2 version; she said the House bills would be amended to match the Senate change.

On the license-plate question, Tattery Lapp said current specialty-plate revenue for CTM is about $80,000 per year and that "it initially was about a million dollars when it started. Now it's 80,000," attributing the decline to the proliferation of other specialty plates. The committee asked for clarification about plate design and revenue; Tattery Lapp identified the current plate design as the pinwheel.

Committee members pressed on quorum and Open Meetings Act issues. Tattery Lapp described practical barriers for a statewide board, including last-minute professional obligations: "We will always have in person meetings. That's not we're not trying to get away from that. We're not trying to just do Zoom. We're just trying to make sure we can get a quorum," she said, noting members include prosecutors and clergy who travel or may be called away. She said CTM had reduced board meetings from six to four annually in part to ease quorum problems.

Public-support cards read into the record listed organizations and individuals backing the package, including the Michigan Health & Hospital Association, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, the Michigan Education Association, and Michigan's Children. The committee took two procedural actions: approving the Aug. 21 minutes (Representative Zena VanderWaal moved approval; the minutes were approved "without objection") and excusing Representative Harris, who was attending a funeral; Representative VanderWaal moved the excusal and the committee granted it.

No committee vote on the CTM bills was recorded in the transcript. Tattery Lapp asked the committee for support so the bills might be enacted during the current legislative calendar to allow CTM to "further our and continue our work to keep Michigan's children safe from harm through early intervention."