Article courtesy of MIRS for SBAM’s Lansing Watchdog newsletter
House Speaker Matt Hall (R-Richland Township) said during his press conference that if he can’t get a budget deal with Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, House Republicans could work on a new deal with a “Republican Governor” and a potential Republican Senate through a four-month continuing resolution.
“Even if (the next Senate Majority Leader) is Sen. Darrin Camilleri (D-Trenton), I’ll get a better deal because he owes me,” said Hall, a reference to his endorsement of Camilleri for Democratic leader before it became clear he was in line for the post.
The comments came as Hall laid out a series of budget priorities. He said he sees no Medicaid crisis that warrants new taxes or raiding the Rainy Day Fund, especially as “House Republicans saved Medicaid.” Gov. Gretchen Whitmer is concerned new restrictions on Medicaid will result in less money at the state level, requiring cuts in services to lower-income residents if replacement revenue isn’t found. She’s pushing for new revenue, such as increases in “sin taxes” like vaping.
Hall is saying no. Instead, he insisted that lawmakers could balance the budget by cutting at least $800 million in “waste, fraud and abuse” across Medicaid, childcare, autism services, food assistance, “ghost employees” and underused state office leases.
“There is no threat of any Medicaid funding changing in a negative way in 2027,” Hall said. “If they want to talk about solutions to what we do in 2028, 2029 and 2030, then you know, let’s make a deal that involves property tax cuts.”
There were a lot of “scare tactics,” from the Democrats, he said, about how there wasn’t going to be enough Medicare and Medicaid money this year.
“All we had to do was make some very minor changes to the state’s Medicaid law, and guess what, we’re getting all of the Medicaid money, all of it, even the amount of it that goes to the fraud, we’re even getting that,” he said. “We hear this year after year from Democrats, and there’s been no change to Medicaid. In fact, we’re getting more Medicaid money than we’ve ever gotten before. It’s one of the reasons that some of these Democratic budget proposals are so high. It’s because of all the Medicaid money flowing into the state.”
He criticized what he described as self-attestation in welfare eligibility, saying the state should do more to verify it and citizenship before benefits are distributed. Hall also said the state should crack down on people receiving benefits in multiple states or spending SNAP benefits entirely out of state for an extended period of time, referring to HB 6013 that passed last week.
“Of course, every Democrat voted against that, except for the ones that sneak out,” Hall said.
He then singled out childcare and autism services as areas where he believes the state should investigate at least $18 million in potential childcare savings by moving from enrollment-based childcare payments to attendance-based payments.
“Michigan is No. 6 in the country for autism spent on Medicaid, and in Minnesota and Ohio the DOJ has uncovered a massive flaw where these providers are getting all this money from the government for officer services, and then the providers are falsifying their treatment, and they’re pocketing the money,” Hall said. “They’re coming up with a list of all these names of kids that are not attending the childcare, and they’re pocketing the money, and that’s why we need to, that’s going to save a lot of money in fraud. Now we found $18 million, but I suspect before we look at it, it’s going to be a lot.”
In terms of the “ghost employees” in state government that Hall wants to stop funding, he argued that state workers are not returning to offices at the levels the administration claims. He said that departments are assigning names to desks rather than proving workers are actually coming in.
He wants a more uniform statewide return-to-office policy with workers coming in at least three days a week for jobs that were traditionally full-time office-based. He added that the state should reduce the number of leased buildings it pays for if those offices are underused. Michigan owns roughly 400 buildings and leases roughly 400 more, he said, while many offices are sparsely used.
The speaker was also clear that Rx Kids will not receive any new or restored funding. Criticizing the cash-assistance program following last week’s House Oversight Committee, he said the program allows for payments to go to people regardless of income level, alleging some payments may go to undocumented immigrants or spent on drugs, alcohol or gambling.
“They got $270 million last year, but before that, they were getting $20 million a year,” Hall said. “They’re just fine. They don’t need any money.”
The suggestion that the Republican leader is willing to blow through a statutory July 1 budget deadline infuriated the education community, which is pushing for a completed state budget so local schools can adequately plan for the next school year.
K-12 Alliance of Michigan Executive Director Robert McCann called the suggestion “as illegal as it is irresponsible” to the state’s 1.4 million K-12 students.
“That deadline is not optional, and it is certainly not contingent on the Speaker getting everything he wants.”
Click here for more News & Resources.