The Republican-led House passed a scaled-back $20 billion continuation spending plan that would start Oct. 1, if the Legislature and the Governor can’t come up with a budget agreement for Fiscal Year (FY) 2026 by the required Sept. 30 deadline.
If the Senate and the Governor sign off on the emergency budget, House Speaker Matt Hall (R-Richland Township) said he’d support a book-closing supplemental for Fiscal Year (FY) 2024 that would square up the budget that ended Sept. 30, 2024.
Hall called his continuation budget a “worst-case scenario” and it would fund such government operations as schools, prisons, police and local governments . . . just in case.
The bills, HB 4161 and HB 4162, passed 59-49 with Rep. Karen Whitsett (D-Detroit) joining Republicans in voting yes. Reps. Joey Andrews (D-St. Joseph) and Kimberly Edwards (D-Eastpointe) were absent Thursday.
“Girl, I don’t need to hear no more,” said Senate Appropriations Chair Sarah Anthony (D-Lansing) while having MIRS’ breaking news alert read to her.
“Tell him he is not Donald Trump, that if he wants to actually be a real player in this Capitol, he has to be serious about governing, and not just doing things to get the press’ attention,” she said. “We are always in the Capitol. We are open to actually negotiating, but communicating through press conference is not the mature, responsible way to get a close-of-books done.”
In his press conference Thursday morning, Hall pitched what he is calling a “government shutdown prevention plan” that would disarm Democrats who argue House Republicans are leveraging a government shutdown in budget negotiations.
“If he wants to have a press conference every day and be a diva, I will gladly buy him a tiara,” said Rep. Kelly Breen (D-Novi).
House Minority Leader Ranjeev Puri (D-Canton) said a false choice is being presented to legislative leaders by framing this budget-making process as either a stripped-down, bare-bones budget or a government shutdown.
“Is Speaker Hall anticipating his own failure to get a budget done? We haven’t seen a government shutdown in a long time, and there’s no good reason why he should be predicting one now unless he wants it to happen,” said Senate Majority Leader Winnie Brinks (D-Grand Rapids) said in a statement.
“Not only is this an empty budget, it’s also straight out of the Trump playbook — create a problem and then try to paint yourself as a hero for fixing the crisis of your own making. He can keep trying to legislate via press release. However, in the upper chamber, we’ll keep doing the actual work of the people,” Brinks added.
When Rep. Ann Bollin (R-Brighton) was appointed to be House Appropriations Chair, she said she immediately had three supplemental requests on her desk: one to close the books for last year and two for additional funding this year.
Fundamentally, she said, last year’s books need to be resolved, which is something she and Hall disagree on.
Bollin said the bills aren’t a budget on their own. It’s a prevention plan, and she added that it’s not a statement of priorities as is typically the argument about budgets.
In the bills, school funding is dropped by $5 billion compared to the last budget, a 25 percent decrease, and many departments go without funding, although the intention is to start from there and include funding for departments or other budget areas as needed.
HB 4161 and HB 4162 aren’t shell bills, per se, because they would go into effect if needed, but they meet the minimum funding requirements for the state government to still operate, and it’s a place for negotiations to start from, Hall said.
When asked what he thinks of the Republican argument that the FY 2026 budget bills are a negotiating tactic so that Anthony’s year-end supplemental can get across the finish line, Puri responded with a question of his own. Why do negotiations need to be happening against the clock?
“If there’s an earnest effort to fund a budget on time, like Democrats have done time and time again the last couple of years, why not negotiate in good faith?” Puri asked.
Breen said she thinks the Republicans’ argument about transparency and process is hollow.
Hall argued that during the Democratic trifecta, both chambers passed budget bills deep into the night.
“These guys didn’t care about process at all the last two years,” Hall said. “It was the most dysfunctional Democratic majority in the Michigan House we’ve ever seen. That’s why (voters) replaced them.”
However, House Appropriations Committee Minority Vice Chair Alabas Farhat (D-Dearborn) said the Democratic trifecta had months of committee hearings, conference reports and floor amendments that went into developing the budget.
“If this is some kind of negotiating, ‘Art-of-the-Deal’ kind of tactic, it is dangerous, and we don’t need this sh*t in Michigan,” said Rep. Regina Weiss (D-Oak Park), the former House Appropriations K-12 Subcommittee chair.
State Budget Director Jen Flood said in a statement that the office looks forward to working with the Legislature to pass a full budget that lowers costs for families, creates good-paying jobs, and improves student outcomes.
Taking that political pressure point out of Democrats’ toolbox and buying time for negotiation is how Hall can get on board with signing the book closing supplemental from the last fiscal year of the Democratic trifecta.
“They left and they didn’t close the books on last year, and now (Sarah Anthony) is coming to me and saying ‘you need to close the books.’ Why would I close your books?” Hall said.
It’s not much unlike the patchwork of continuing budget resolutions that the federal government passes in lieu of an annual budget that Congress can agree on, a source speaking on background said.
Bollin said conversations she’s had have shown that $49 million would be needed for book closing, and the $20 billion supplemental would send about $15 billion to keeping schools operating and over $4 billion for general fund purposes.
Article courtesy MIRS News for SBAM’s Lansing Watchdog newsletter
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