RESOURCES:
Fiscal Year 2026 Budget General Omnibus
TRANSCRIPTION:
David Fair: This is 89.1 WEMU, and I'm David Fair. The self-imposed deadline for passing a state budget has come and went. The state Legislature is expected to deliver its finalized budget to the governor by July 1st. That is today! Here we are, and it appears there are chasms between versions of the budget in the state House and state Senate. The fiscal years for K-12 schools and institutions of higher education begins today. Those school districts, colleges, and universities have all had to pass new budgets without benefit of knowing exactly what's coming from the state. The question begs: how close is the state Legislature, and what are the issues creating the holdups? Jason Morgan is a Democrat from Ann Arbor representing the 23rd State House District. And, Representative Morgan, thank you for the time today! I appreciate it!
Rep. Jason Morgan: It's great to be with you!
David Fair: Let's talk about that education component of the budget. The new fiscal year for schools is now officially underway effective today. How many complaints have you heard from school districts and from area colleges and universities about not knowing how to budget because of the delays?
Rep. Jason Morgan: Well, thank you! Yes. To maybe level say here, so we should be passing a budget today in the Michigan Legislature. That is what the state law says. But we've faced some challenges working with House Republican leadership currently around that issue. And one of the big issues is schools. So, the K-12 budget passed by the House two weeks ago is creating some challenges, in terms of how it allocates funding. And with the issue that it cuts a lot of programs like mental health and school safety and free breakfast and lunches for kids, that is creating a lot tension in the Legislature as we continue to work on that today.
David Fair: Well, the school aid budget, as I understand it, would allocate $21.9 billion with $69.9 million coming from the state's general fund. That's a 5.5% increase from last year's approved budget. But as you mentioned, House Speaker Matt Hall seems intent on providing that increase by cutting spending in other important areas--areas that would appear to have the most adverse impact on students from low-income families. What exactly are you and your fellow Democrats looking to financially preserve in the budget?
Rep. Jason Morgan: Well, so the important thing that I should add that we're hearing from schools is that they want a a sound budget that supports them adequately. They'd like it on time, and that is our job. But at the end of the day, they need a budget that they can work with. And so, what we're pushing for is to get a budget done on time today. And we're pushing for making sure that we're maintaining those critical programs. One of the tricks that you're seeing in the budget passed by the House Republican leadership is that it appears to be more money for schools, but it's at the expense of slashing all these programs that are critically important for students, like mental health and school lunches and things like that. So, that's one key piece. The second key pieces is that there's a huge shift to a lot of our education money going to private and charter institutions away from our public schools. So, you may end up being a larger number, but it's somewhat of a trick because it's not necessarily a larger number going to every school--every public school. There's a lot of money shifting to our charter schools under their proposed budget.
David Fair: Have you done some assessment on potential impacts to the K-12 students should the GOP version of this budget be signed into law, particularly those that are most in need of supplemental assistance?
Rep. Jason Morgan: Yes. And so, the big thing that we're seeing is without the provisions to make sure that we're supporting our at-risk students and supporting school safety and providing rural transportation and providing these lunches, those programs will likely or could go away for our kids, due to the way contracts are negotiated and the way that the schools allocate budget, depending on state aid and how that aid is granted. So, we could see it a lot of these programs that families have shared with us are very important to them going away if we were to pass the House Republican budget. With that said, the Senate, led by Democrats, has passed a very different budget a month and a half ago that would preserve all these programs and provided a sizable increase to the per-people funding as well. But that's where the negotiation is at this point.
David Fair: This is 89.1 WEMU, and we're talking about the process of getting a completed budget with 23rd District State Representative Jason Morgan of Ann Arbor. And I want to get to the matter of reconciliation. But before I do, I want bring up another point of concern. Beyond the finances, the GOP is pushing to include a 20% foundation allowance penalty if districts were non-compliant with proposed boilerplate language prohibiting race, gender and DEI instruction or initiatives. That could have a dramatic impact on the districts in Washtenaw County. Is there a path forward during reconciliation on this matter or is a going to continue to be a sticking point?
Rep. Jason Morgan: So, that is going to be a sticking point. That's one of the other tricks here in this budget is that there are a number of provisions written into boilerplate that will actually prevent schools from receiving the money that they should be receiving under it. So, again, a lot of sleight of hand tricks in this budget that, frankly, I get very frustrated by. I think this is politics--kind of the the federal type of politics--coming into play here in Michigan. I generally think that Michiganders are not interested in that and would prefer that we just do our work in a boring way on time and use common sense in terms of what we're doing here. But a lot of those provisions would make it very difficult for schools to teach basic history and still receive their state funding.
David Fair: You have said that if the Republican plan for the state budget is adopted, it would strip away care from millions. You say there would be about 60,000 directly impacted in Washtenaw County, 203,000 in Oakland County, and 730,000 and Wayne County. What programs cuts are you talking about in specific?
Rep. Jason Morgan: What I'm talking about....I guess you're combining a few things here. So, there's the federal budget bill. That would have devastating impacts for a number of things for a state from Medicaid to education. Then there's the state budget here that has impact on K-12 and some of these programs I've just talked about, as well as higher education. The University of Michigan would receive a 65% cut or $200-plus million a year in state funding if this budget were to pass proposed by the House. And then, you're talking about very specific programs like school lunches and rural transportation and things like that. Those things would be impacted under this plan. And then again, if you apply those boilerplate budget items to the overall funding for schools, you would see a lot of our school districts that again just teach basic history that does involve talking about diversity in some ways based on the history of the United States, and that would be used to strip some of our school districts of their funding as well. So, it's a very big overreach, in my opinion, to micromanage our schools in ways that are just purely for political reasons.
David Fair: Once again, we're talking with 23rd District State Representative Jason Morgan from Ann Arbor. So you have mentioned that you plan to have something in the books by the end of the day today. What are we as a public going to be told at the end at the 24-hour period that ends at midnight?
Rep. Jason Morgan: So, yes. That's the question of the day is will we have that budget done. And let me tell you this. The governor put out her budget on February 5th. The Senate Democrats put out their budget on May 14th. We still do not yet have a a full real budget from House Republican leadership. They passed a k-12 budget that we've just talked about. They passed a higher education budget. But they have not passed a full budget for anything else in state government. This is highly unusual. And so, I think that the effort by our leadership in the House is to shut down our state government come October. That is the plan that I am really worried about. I think that is bad government and not how we should operate. And again, if I'm saying Democrat or Republican here, I'm saying it to be political. But the reality is that some of our House leadership is inserting that federal politics into our government today. And so, you have to acknowledge where folks are at in the negotiating conversation. And unfortunately, it's become very political right now. So, we're just trying to do our jobs, get a budget done, and help the people. But that's pretty difficult right now.
David Fair: I have heard both Republicans and Democrats say that if you show me your budgets, I'll show you your values. Right now, what values do you think the state budget is going to show the people?
Rep. Jason Morgan: I think it will depend on who the public holds accountable here. You're going to hear a lot of things in the coming days of who's responsible for not passing a budget if it doesn't get done. And I will tell you very definitively that there's not been a time, in my time in the Legislature, or modern history where one chamber of the Legislature simply has not passed a budget at all. And that is the case with Michigan House Republicans and Speaker Matt Hall right now. So, if a budget is not done, I believe the blame falls squarely on the Speaker of the House, and it is up to him to come to the table in good faith and negotiate a budget as soon as we can.
David Fair: The governor has been strangely quiet on this budget negotiations. We have about 20 seconds left together, so very quickly. What's the word you've heard out of her office? Does she have her veto pen ready or is she prepared to sign what is sent her?
Rep. Jason Morgan: So, the governor's been very involved. She put forward her budget proposal in February. She made very clear she wants us to get things done, so she's at the table. We're working with her well, but you need everybody who's negotiating to come to the table in good faith. And that's what we're waiting for from our House Republican leadership.
David Fair: Thank you so much for the time in the conversation today! I appreciate it!
Rep. Jason Morgan: Absolutely! Thank you!
David Fair: That is Ann Arbor Democrat Jason Morgan representing the 23rd State House District. Stay tuned to WEMU for budget updates. I'm David Fair, and this is your community NPR station. It's 89.1 WEMU-FM Ypsilanti.
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