WITHER THE BUDGET'S CONTROVERSY AND MECHANICS NOW?
With the end of the beginning over the 2005-06 budget in the history books following House approval of its version, the action does not get any less intense as the Republican-led Legislature drives towards finding an agreement with Democratic Governor Jennifer Granholm.
The Senate will vote on its budget bills next week. Discussions on how to proceed with the budgets will continue. And organizations plan efforts to both support and oppose the budget.
Officials are still not ready to declare their deadline of completing the budget by July 1 dead, but acknowledge publicly at least that the "logistics" for finishing the budget by then are complicated. The 2005-06 fiscal year begins October 1, and most people expect work on the budget will have to continue over the summer.
With Ms. Granholm threatening a veto of Republican budget plans and House Speaker Craig DeRoche (R-Novi) kicking up some partisan dust (see related story),
Ari Adler, spokesperson for Senate Majority Leader Ken Sikkema (R-Wyoming) said the Senate becomes the moderating force in the budget discussions.
It is a moderating force even though so far, its budget proposals are close to what the House passed in its massive budget.
"Both chambers decided early on that they were going to balance the budget and not take on the governor's proposed tax increases," Mr. Adler said.
But as negotiations go on, both sides have to be careful not to go too far in their rhetoric, Mr. Adler said. While everyone has to get "their blustery rhetoric" out of the way, different sides cannot set too many lines in the sand if a compromise is to be worked out.
"We have to get everyone to the point where they can declare victory and issue their press releases on what they've accomplished," Mr. Adler said.
Mr. DeRoche notably said after Thursday's votes that the philosophical differences between the sides would not preclude fruitful negotiations.
And as negotiations continue interest groups will not budge from their positions. The Michigan Corrections Organization, for one, remains firmly opposed to the decision to close the Newberry Correctional Facility and keep open the Baldwin youth prison. Mel Greishaber, MCO political director, said the organization would continue to write e-mails and work with other interest groups to keep Newberry open and close Baldwin.
"We're generating hundreds of e-mails and phone calls," he said. "The system has room for those 480 youth (at Baldwin) but where are we going to put 1,144 beds (at Newberry)?"
Sen. Alan Cropsey (R-DeWitt), chair of the Senate Appropriations Corrections Committee that took the first action to close the Newberry prison, was on his way to Newberry Friday at the invitation of Rep. Tom Casperson (R-Escanaba) to explain to prison workers and community members why the decision had been made.
"The key thing is for people in the department and in the community to know how dire the straits that we are in," Mr. Cropsey said. The state's budget situation will almost assuredly dictate at least one prison somewhere will be closed, he said, whether it is Newberry, the Youth Correctional Facility in Baldwin or some other facility.
He made similar trips to Baldwin when that prison was first proposed for closure, he said.
Mr. Cropsey criticized both Ms. Granholm for forcing a decision to close Newberry by not making other decisions and proposals to reduce the size of the Corrections budget.
And he rebuked U.P. Democrats for not going along with a proposal to make other cuts and keep Newberry open.
But he also said, as the budget moves forward, that changes will be made to the overall plan. Because the facility at Baldwin is privately owned, if there was any indication it would be able to contract for prisoners from out of state then he would have looked at that option, Mr. Cropsey said. And a $1 million cut to the Baldwin prison was instituted partly in hopes of pushing new negotiations on the state contract with the facility, he said.
The Michigan League of Human Services said they will "absolutely not" stand by and let the House budget pass. Although they have not planned any rallies or protests, they will compile a lot of information for the Senate to look over, said Sharon Parks, the league's vice president for policy.
"These are harsh proposals that will impact thousands of families and children," she said. "I think education and understanding is where we have to go now. We'll certainly be working with our networks."
Ms. Parks said the information the league plans to compile involves the number of people affected by certain portions of the budget bill, which includes cutting some Medicaid services, some welfare benefits and some job creation services. The league also plans to examine how other states have balanced their budgets and how Michigan compares to them.
While all this is going on, the Michigan Chamber of Commerce will be lobbying in support of the House version. Vice President Rich Studley said the chamber would continue to call its member businesses to action and educate them on the issues and lawmakers who are fighting for business.
Mr. Studley said he is not opposed to cuts in business or increased education funding, but said he wants the debate to remain civil and not denigrate to name calling, which he said some representatives resorted to about the business community.
"It's very hypocritical for (Rep.) Gretchen Whitmer to say they want to work with the business community and then during budget debates make the kind of very negative comments she made," he said in reference to the Democratic representative from East Lansing. "You have not heard us complain about budget cuts in the business community and you won't."
Mr. Studley said he plans to alert Chamber members to which legislators made negative comments about the business community and which one support business. He said he feels the limits on Medicaid and welfare spending have been successful in other states and are not unfair to Michigan residents.
Aside from the arguing over substance and policy, what has fascinated and compelled local observers is the mechanics of the budget process, especially since the Senate has HB 4831 which encompasses almost the entire proposed budget and in return it will send to the House 17 separate budget bills.
Senate Appropriations Committee chair Sen. Shirley Johnson (R-Troy) said on Thursday that the omnibus bill would "be split." Any kind of a conference committee or committees on the budget should consist of more than just the Senate majority leader, the House speaker and the governor, Ms. Johnson said.
Mr. Adler said discussions on how to proceed are continuing. No final decision has been made on that as yet. DeRoche spokesperson Matt Resch said no decision has been made on how to handle the Senate's budget bills, but that they would be reviewed closely.
Mr. Cropsey said that in the end, the form the budget takes is relatively unimportant.
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