Michigan lawmakers approved a plan early Wednesday morning to fund state government for another week as they finalize a spending agreement for the new fiscal year. The state’s previous budget had run out at midnight.
The extension buys more time to avoid a partial government shutdown, when non-essential services would stop running.
Passing a balanced budget for the next fiscal year by October 1 is a constitutional requirement in Michigan. State officials announcing the funding plan did not specify what legal tactics would be used to extend state spending without running afoul of the state constitution.
Last week, legislative leaders and Governor Gretchen Whitmer announced the framework for a state budget deal. They hoped it would pass before the old one expired.
Speaking to reporters a little before 2 a.m. Wednesday, Senate Majority Leader Winnie Brinks (D-Grand Rapids) said that agreed-upon deal still stands. But the details hadn't been hashed out and it wasn’t ready for a vote in time to make the state's constitutional deadline for adopting a budget.
“I think the important thing to remember is that we were able to come to an agreement even in a time like this with divided government. We will be keeping government services open. The people of Michigan will still be able to get what they need from their government for the next week despite this minor delay,” Brinks said.
The week-long spending plan totals roughly $1.5 billion. It covers funding for state departments, but not K-12 schools, which began their new fiscal year in July without knowing how much money to expect from the state.
Representative Bryan Posthumus (R-Rockford) said the holdup is unfortunate.
“It wasn’t the ideal situation. Would it have been better if we’d passed it on July 1? 100%. I wish we had. That’s something that we as a government, we need to be better at,” he told reporters after the House agreed to the deal.
“As drafting continues, I’m grateful to legislators on both sides of the aisle for their work and I am ready to conduct a final legal review and sign it into law after they send me the budget,” Whitmer said in the statement.
One of the next steps in the budget process will involve holding a Senate Appropriations hearing on each of the earmark spending requests lawmakers submitted under a resolution passed in the chamber on Monday.
The process also could involve holding votes to pass road funding legislation that the Republican-led House and Whitmer had pushed for this entire process. A part of that road funding deal, which would raise taxes on marijuana sales, could see opposition from at least some members of the Democratic Senate majority.
Regardless, Brinks said staff will still have much more work to do on the backend, even after final details of the budget plan get worked out.
State Representative Jim DeSana (R-Carleton) said this has been a very frustrating budget process.
“You could even say it’s broken and that representative government is really not working for the people right now,” DeSana said.
A statement from Whitmer's office released shortly after 4 a.m. said she had signed the spending extension into law. "The continuation budget keeps state government open as the budget is finalized and passed by the legislature, ensuring Michiganders have uninterrupted access to government services, and state employees continue to get paid," the statement said.
The government funding extension will last until October 8.
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