Posted on 09/30/2009 9:14:49 PM PDT by Kieri
LANSING, Mich. (AP) -- With a midnight deadline that's come and gone, Michigan lawmakers continue to struggle to craft a spending plan, leaving many of those with a stake in how the budget turns out as uncertain as they were the day before.
A deal to fill a nearly $3 billion shortfall with federal recovery dollars and more than $1 billion in cuts fell through, as many lawmakers discovered they couldn't stomach deep cuts to schools and local services such as police and fire protection in the stricken state.
Michigan already is struggling with the nation's highest unemployment rate, a shrinking auto industry, a high rate of home foreclosures and an economy that soured long before the national recession hit. The number of people receiving food stamps and unemployment checks keeps going up, and it's the only state where the Census Bureau found poverty rates rose two years in a row.
Pennsylvania is the only other state without a budget deal enacted. Leaders there reached a tentative deal nearly two weeks ago, but have been unable to get the votes to put all the pieces in place. Only Michigan and Alabama have fiscal years that start Oct. 1, and Alabama has passed its budget.
Michigan is having a tough time finding money for everything from prisons to universities and in-school health clinics for adolescents. It's not a new trend. State revenues have grown just 1.3 percent annually during the past decade when federal funds are left out, according to the nonpartisan House Fiscal Agency.
University funding has dropped 22 percent during the past seven years when adjusted for inflation, forcing up tuition rates. Yet the higher education compromise lawmakers passed Wednesday eliminated the popular Promise Grant scholarship, which gave college students up to $4,000, and cut other student financial aid to the bone.
The lack of a budget deal left 51,000 state workers unsure as they headed to bed Wednesday night whether they'd have to show up for work Thursday. The administration had issued temporary layoff notices earlier in the day and told state contractors they might not get paid.
Democratic Gov. Jennifer Granholm was angling to get an interim budget sent to her by the midnight deadline. She didn't like the cuts it contained, but it would mean 30 more days for lawmakers to put a more palatable deal in place and she probably wouldn't have to cut much spending during that period. The interim budget originally was Senate Republicans' idea. But as House Democrats on Wednesday tried to restore programs such as scholarships and library money, GOP lawmakers feared Democrats only wanted the stopgap to win more time for tax increases.
"The continuation budget was there as a safety valve in case we didn't finish," said Republican Senate Majority Leader Mike Bishop of Rochester. Having one in place would only give Granholm "30 more days to pressure the Legislature to adopt something she wants."
Granholm spokeswoman Liz Boyd disagreed, saying Bishop and Democratic House Speaker Andy Dillon of Wayne County's Redford Township failed to get the votes to pass a budget deal that included deep cuts and no new revenue.
"They're unable to get approval on budgets based on agreements they agreed to -- not us," Boyd said. "The prudent thing to do, the responsible thing to do, would be to put that continuation budget on the governor's desk so that we can operate government."
As legislative leaders attempted to find common ground, school and local government leaders grew increasingly nervous contemplating just how much in cuts they'd have to absorb.
Revenue for cities, villages and townships has dropped by nearly a quarter in the past eight years, and mayors statewide said absorbing a proposed 11 percent cut in the new budget would force them to lay off police, close parks and shut off some city services.
Michigan is even in danger of losing millions of federal dollars for Medicaid and similar programs if it can't come up with its share of matching funds.
House Appropriations Chairman George Cushingberry warned lawmakers they had to make a choice between hurting education, health care services and public safety or finding more money. "You can't have it both ways," the Detroit Democrat told House members.
But Republican Sen. John Pappageorge of the Detroit suburb of Troy criticized Democrats for talking about raising more revenue.
"What you're saying is we're going to take money from our citizens," he said. "Guess what? They don't care for that." ------
Thank God Granholm is term-limited. She has got to be the worst Governor of any state in American history. Hoekstra should win this seat easily.
The last thing to be cut will be the payments that keep folks voting Democrat. At that point, instantaneous implosion.
I don’t think that’ll happen for another couple of years. When Jenny and the Dems run out of stimulus money to plug the budget holes and HAVE to make cuts, maybe then the rats will finally leave the sunken ship. What a mess.
Over the last decade, the state legislature has gone from a yearly budget of $91 million to $115 million. $5 million of that is the legislature retirement system - really, guys, you got a retirement system - it’s when the voters kick your rump out of office, that’s when you retire, and you go back to whatever real job you should have had...
Let’s put this in perspective, the $25 million dollar increase that the legislature has given itself is pretty much exactly what they’re talking about taking out of the library budgets. So obviously, if they’re cutting the libraries, they already sliced back their own budget, right?
Wrong.
How about cut this extravagant and duplicative retirement program? Nope. In fact, the proposed budget and even the stopgap one RAISED the money going into that... Fire them. Fire every last one of the idiots until they start getting the idea that if they want to ‘slash budgets’ the first place they should start at is THEIR OWN.
Sounds like the lawmakers may have to face their political 3rd rail...ie start enacting drastic cuts in welfare and other social programs. Maybe the dependant class will get the message.
Bishop had one that passed over a month ago. The house dragged its heels. Granholm wanted another tax increase.
Sorry meant 1968, big difference!
keep electing democrats and this is what they get. no sympathy for this pathetic state. maybe cananda will take it.
The Saturn closing will not help. Even though there are no Saturn plants in Michigan, lots of parts subcontractors are located there.
They never get the message. They will die before getting the message. Just look at any big city that is going down the toilet. They keep voting democrat all the way to the end.
B-B-b-b-but...Jenny Grantheft said...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5PdHC9kAJK4
Socialists/Rinos and Statists in Michigan will think of something. (They always do)
Hang on to your wallet ALERT!
Go Peter! I was on campus with little Pete after I got out of the Army in 1973. He looked like a junior high kid with a giant briefcase and a boyish smile as wide as Lake Michigan. We kiddingly called him "Sunshine."
And look at him now.
Huh... I hadn't noticed. I guess that's because government budgets generally only concern the parasites. As long as the politicians don't raise my taxes, I don't care what the h=// they do. I imagine most of the people (non-parasite people) in Michigan feel the same way.
Several Saturns were actually made in Michigan, as well. The Outlook was one of them. I thought the VUE may have been made there, as well, but it turns out it’s now manufactured in Mexico. Or was.
Lovely how “a different kind of car company” just up and moved to Mexico, isn’t it?
I’ll not buy another UAW car again. The Japanese cars made in the US under non-union labor are just fine for me.
Hoekstra may not win the primary. In addition to him and a few other potential first tier candidates (such as the AG Mike Cox & Mike Bouchard), Rick Snyder, a venture capitalist might be a surprise upset (but I know little about him).
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