Michigan’s Budget Talks Still Ongoing

Last week, the State of Michigan passed an interim budget to keep the government going. The House passed a continuation budget that keeps the state government operating past the midnight October 1st deadline to balance the budget. Because the Senate did not pass this budget until nearly 2 a.m. on the same day, state government was forced to shut down for almost two hours. Everyone throughout Michigan was saddened and disappointed that an agreement was not reached by the deadline, and many legislators were angry that Michigan had to suffer another black eye like they did in 2007. However, Michiganders everywhere should be thankful that our state leaders were able to avert a prolonged government shutdown that would have been disastrous to all our residents and to our economy.

Still this interim budget allows us to keep educating our kids, keeps state offices open, prevents a prolonged shutdown and will allow negotiations resolving our fiscal crisis to continue. Nonetheless there are still many hurdles that need to be accomplished in order for our State to become solvent again and be put on the right footing to create a greater future for Michigan. Thus as our state legislators continue to try to find solutions to balancing our state’s budget it is clear that with 14 of 15 budgets already being agreed upon and passing, such as Community Colleges; Agriculture; Department of Energy, Labor and Economic Growth; Department of Environmental Quality/Department of Natural Resources; Department of Human Services; Judiciary; Corrections; Department of Education; Military and Veterans Affairs; Higher Education; Community Health and Transportation General Government; and State Police. So the state’s focus is on school aid which is not an easy task to come to an agreement on. Therefore our state leaders have more extremely tough decisions to make but there should be no doubt that more deep cuts have to be made to make government leaner and more efficient. However, we have to make these cuts the right way, in the right places.

So as our legislators try to come to a consensus on the School Aid (K-12) budget, it is clear that this budget is very important to investing and ensuring Michigan’s turnaround because education is the key to success. Many educators, school districts, parents, and students are very concerned that cuts in some of these budgets simply go too far and take Michigan in the wrong direction but we all know that some cuts are necessary right now to make Michigan solvent for the future. However as a state we have to protect local fire and police protection to keep our families and communities safe. Our children's safety is of vital importance and businesses must also be confident in the strength of our neighborhoods in order to draw them to and keep them in our communities.

With that said, it good to hear that our legislators have decided to protect the Promise Scholarships, which help nearly 100,000 students train for 21st century jobs while creating the educated workforce we need to attract emerging industries. If we are serious about turning our communities and our cities around, education must be the foundation upon which we build. We have to provide the resources our schools need to educate our children so they can be prepared to compete for good-paying jobs in the global economy. We can't rob our students of the teachers and tools they need to succeed in life. And we have to increase access to health care for our kids and seniors. We cannot become a state that turns its back on our most vulnerable residents. We are better than that.

Therefore the final budget – School Aid – remains the most difficult because it contains potential cuts that will directly affect our children's education. Thank God that some legislators voted against AGAINST a $218 per-pupil cut, a move that would have devastated our local schools' ability to prepare our children to compete for 21st century jobs. Here's what the potential impact of these cuts would have been, locally:
$18.69 million from Detroit City School District
$620,012 from Hamtramck Public Schools
$521,901 from Highland Park City Schools
If we are serious about turning our state around, we must reject these reckless cuts. Balancing the state budget on the backs of our children's futures, through cuts to education, flies in the face of every eloquent speech and banal sound bite heard from elected officials on either side of the aisle.

We as a state we must fight for what matters and that is why our state legislators particularly the House have already reduced spending by more than $1 billion in the budgets we have passed – and we did it by making deep cuts to government. These are steps we must take in order to resolve our massive deficit and get Michigan back on track. So as we make cuts, we need to make sure they are the right kind of cuts and I hope our state legislators understand that. I know State Representative Bert Johnson and State Senator Martha G. Scott understand that and I hope other legislators continue to vote to restore certain priorities that are essential to moving Michigan forward.

Voting to restore local police and fire protection, thus preventing massive layoffs of the firefighters and police officers who keep our families, homes and communities safe was a major step for the future of Michigan. Saving the Promise Scholarship program, thus providing access to college for nearly 100,000 students so we can build a highly educated workforce that will attract 21st century jobs is yet another critical step in the right direction toward building a better Michigan. Lastly, protecting health care for our kids and seniors, thus ensuring they can get the life-saving medical treatment they need is another step toward building a healthier state. These are all essential priorities that we must protect in order to support our middle-class families, turn our economy around and create good-paying jobs.

Michigan must fix a $2.8 billion deficit at a time when revenues – money the state takes in – are falling year after year. With unemployment at 15.2 percent, the amount of income, sales and property taxes coming in to the state has plunged. Revenues are down by 35 percent since 2000. There's no question that, just like families all across Detroit and our state, Michigan’s state government must cut back and tighten its belt. We need a leaner, more efficient government that squeezes more value out of every taxpayer dollar. That's why I am proud that the House voted to reduce state spending by $1 billion dollars.

Cuts and reforms are important, and our state legislators must do both in more areas, but at the end of the day the state budget is just like our household budget: you can cut expenses, and you can change the way you do things but at some point, there must be more money coming in. That is why our state legislators voted for a plan that will raise revenues in order to save these essential programs that are key to shaping Michigan's future:
--Fire and police protection
--Michigan Promise Scholarships
--Health care for our children and seniors

Still as Michigan’s budget talks continue, it seems as if times are tough, and that's why our state legislators must only support extremely targeted taxes at the lowest levels necessary to maintain these vital programs. Hopefully the budget is completed in the next coming days and that this sends a signal to our state legislator that our budget needs to be done at least two months in advance to avoid future long or temporary budget shutdowns. This is critical to making sure our state is viable to produce results that can benefit all residents of the state as well as to help our state avoid future embarrassments in terms of having state shutdowns. Thus, Michigan’s budget talks continue but let’s hope for the best results.