There appears to be a breakthrough in budget negotiations at the state Capitol as the House, the Senate and Governor Gretchen Whitmer’s budget office have reached an agreement on broad spending targets in the next budget.
Those agreements must now be further refined into budget bills to be voted on by next week if the Legislature is to meet the July 1 deadline set in state law.
The budget targets were supposed to be handed out as soon as Tuesday night to budget subcommittee chairs to start hammering out spending agreements on K-12 schools, community colleges and public universities and funding for state departments.
The agreements on topline spending levels were still under wraps late Tuesday, but the fact that there is a consensus on those targets is very good news, said Jennifer Smith, legislative director of the Michigan Association of School Boards.
“We are cautiously optimistic,” she said. “A framework is definitely a positive step in the right direction. We’re still waiting on spending amounts and details, but we hope that this means we’re going to be able to get something done by June 30th.”
She said schools are anxiously watching because their fiscal years begin next week.
Last year, the Legislature missed the deadline and bargaining also extended past the October 1 start of the fiscal year for state government.
House Speaker Matt Hall (R-Richland Township) had earlier refused to commit to meeting the July 1 deadline and floated the idea of a four-month continuation budget.
Hall said the agreement makes it less likely that would be necessary.
“I’m really happy about that and I’m hopeful that we’ll get a deal,” he said at his weekly press conference. “And there’s still a chance that we can get this thing at least through the House and the Senate and to the governor by July 1.”
The governor’s office would still have to review the hundreds of pages and spending line items before signing the final versions.
Hall said the new budget will be leaner than the current one with no tax increases. It does not appear to include a property tax rollback that he initially wanted to be part of the negotiations. He said those discussions will continue on a separate track.
The State Budget Office released a statement following the meeting praising progress on the budget and blaming Hall for foot-dragging so close to the budget deadline.
“It's late June, and the Speaker is finally serious about getting the budget done without blowing a $5 billion hole in the School Aid budget,” said the statement. “We look forward to getting a budget passed ahead of July 1 that protects access to health care, invests in kids, and lowers costs for families."
Any final agreement will have to be bipartisan. The House is controlled by Republicans, and the Senate is led by Democrats.
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