Posted on 09/08/2007 7:45:45 PM PDT by mombyprofession
LANSING - Michigan policymakers edged closer to the brink of the unthinkable this week, as paralysis in the debate over how to address the state's looming $1.8-billion deficit for the 2007-08 budget year raised the specter of a partial shutdown of state government if no deal is reached by Oct. 1.
Talks to resolve the budget stalemate broke down in a flurry of finger-pointing Thursday night, leaving Gov. Jennifer Granholm and lawmakers stumbling toward the deadline without a plan to pay for an array of government services.
Seasoned Capitol observers said the situation is as dire as any in memory. In budget crises dating back for a half century, policymakers have always reached at least an interim resolution.
"I had thought the chance of a shutdown was remote," said Dennis Cawthorne, a longtime Lansing lobbyist who served in the Legislature in the 1960s and '70s. "But after last night, I've escalated that. I think the chance is now significant."
Granholm, Senate Majority Leader Mike Bishop, R-Rochester, and House Speaker Andy Dillon, D-Redford Township, continue to pledge every effort to avoid a shutdown.
"That would be terrible, terrible, terrible for the state," Granholm said Friday "These are services that citizens rely on."
Granholm and the legislative leaders also said they were not interested in enacting temporary, continuation budgets to maintain state operations after Oct. 1 while talks continue - as was done as recently as the early 1980s.
But one budget expert said time is already so short it may be impossible to avoid.
Doug Drake, a former state budget official now working as a consultant in Lansing, said the immensity and complexity of the state budget and its $40 billion in spending make quick fixes technically difficult.
"I've talked to some people who think that even with an agreement this weekend, they might not have time to draft all the legislation before Sept. 30," Drake said.
Michigan's most notorious budget showdown came in 1959, when Democratic Gov. G. Mennen Williams and a Republican-controlled state Senate could not agree on a tax hike and Williams ordered payless paydays for some state employees.
None of the leaders in the current crisis would speculate on what form a government shutdown could take in 2007. Legal experts mostly agree that Granholm would be authorized to continue emergency and public safety operations, including prisons. But other state departments could be shuttered.
Kelly Chesney, spokeswoman for Secretary of State Terri Lynn Land, said Friday that without authorization to spend tax dollars "a shutdown would bring a complete halt in services."
Bishop tried to reignite the talks Friday by releasing a budget outline he said could balance the state's books through cuts in spending, a $662-million tax hike and a little bit of found money.
It also appeared to be highly unlikely the Democratic leaders will embrace the outline Bishop presented Friday.
Some of his ideas, such as an early retirement for thousands of state employees, would result in deep cuts to public safety and child welfare programs, said Granholm spokeswoman Liz Boyd.
"This is not the time to negotiate in the media," Boyd said.
Bishop's proposal assumed savings from several places, including an increased use of private contractors for prison and welfare serves and canceling pay raises for state employees.
Boyd said Granholm backs an overall deficit-reduction plan composed of $1.5 billion in tax increases and $300 million in cuts.
And therein lies the problem...
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
I think if the state government shut down it would be no big loss...it let’s the citizens see that they can live with out big brother.
Meadow Muffin
Awwww...
Make like the citizens of medieval Avignon during that prolonged Pope-selection; take the roof off the damn Statehouse and force them to debate in the weather.
Would the State stop collecting taxes then, since they’re no longer performing services?
Would the shutdown include the State Police?
Obviously the Dem’s are going to want some new taxes. for once ma I recommend the GOP gives them some taxes. The GOP in return for new (revenue enhancements) could make sure that there are large taxes paid by TV and Radio networks and their affiliates. How about a tax on news print? Maybe another tax on Newspaper circulation? Oh, maybe another tax on entertainment royalties? Okay, here is another idea for a tax. how about tax on Lawyers fees? Maybe they could put a tax on Volvo’s?
Anybody got some other tax ideas where we could make the lib’s pay?
The power to tax is the power to destroy we should of started to use it a long time ago. Surely since they are so eager to tax they will be eager to pay, right?
Was going to post the same exact sentiments.
“That would be terrible, terrible, terrible for the state,” Granholm said Friday “These are services that citizens rely on.”
And therin lies the problem.
MN had one of these events a few yrs ago. A lot of people were pretty upset when State (mndot) employees spent the last days before the shutdown CLOSING OUR WAYSIDE RESTS!!!!! Thats right, they put up barricades preventing people from accessing even the parking lots.
They say that like it’s a bad thing. I love it when they send “nonessential” personnel home in DC. If they’re nonessential why are they there in the first place and why do we keep bringing them back?
The problem is simple.
The Dems want to pass a new tax to pay for everything.
The GOP isn’t willing to do that. AT the very least, they’re gonna demand some serious cuts before they cave in.
Sadly, our current state of spending is the product of 16 years of GOP claiming that they were in favor of downsized government, but doing quite another. Jen Granholm might be failing at leading us out of this wilderness, but the fact that we’re in this wilderness is squarely on the shoulders of the GOP.
Yes, I’m frustrated, upset and scared. Yes, I feel betrayed by the GOP here. IT doesn’t help when the State of Michigan GOP is much more interested in regaining power than in actually fixing the damn problems that they failed to fix for 16 years.
Yeah, I’d like to see them take much better care of my money before I give them any more of it.
Not to worry. Schwarzi knew what to do. Sell bonds and give services to all non-producers who drain the treasury.
Better yet, sell a few billion pesos of state land.
yitbos
And Michigan lost today 39-7.
So where will these big tax and spenders get their funds if a recession hits? They spend so much they can’t easily fund their spending during the good times. Why? Because Democrats at all levels of government have passed and are pressing to pass broad new expensive entitlements at every opportunity. rush is right. In our lifetimes we will see another 1980 and 1994 style GOP landslide.
I’m a state employee, and this situation shows why term limits are bad policy. We have an ineffective Governor, and this is the first group of legislators since everyone with experience was term-limited out. The state employees who knew the budget inside and out took early retirement deals under Engler. No one is left in Lansing who knows how to solve tough problems, and the Governor is not interested in making tough decisions.
Odds are very high that a huge part of this problem is funding pensions and health care for retirees. An effort NOW to reduce those via restrictions in annual COLA adjustments is the only solution to otherwise inevitable frequent budget disasters.
“Yeah, I’d like to see them take much better care of my money before I give them any more of it.”
I lost all faith in the GOP in this state when Speaker of the House Johnson got his legislation passed that gave notebook computers to every 6th grader in the State, in spite of a looming budget crisis, certain cuts in per-student payments, and the total lack of evidence that such a program is effective. That program survived 2-3 rounds of budget cuts before being killed — and the GOP controlled both houses of the Legislature.
I also wasn’t supposed to notice that Engler went to work for EDS, specifically in a division that was supposed to sell things like notebook computers to state governments.
The GOP played accounting games, raised “fees” (while saying they weren’t raising taxes!) and spent the Tobacco Settlement so they wouldn’t have to find ways to downsize the government. Well, all of those tricks are done, and now it’s crunch time, and only now are they getting around to lowering the cost of government.
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