Budget negotiations are taking place between Michigan legislative leaders and Governor Gretchen Whitmer, but state Representative Joey Andrews tells us he heard they’re not going well.
The Republican-controlled state House approved a budget on a party line vote late last month, while the Democrat-controlled Senate previously approved its own plan. Andrews calls the Republican budget “kind of a disaster,” telling us it makes cuts to just about every state department. That includes a 50% cut to the Office of Labor and Economic Opportunity.
“Eliminating programs like Going Pro that help retrain people into like skilled trades workforce, or for like good blue collar jobs, the JMG program that helps at-risk kids get into the workforce, all programs that got cut to zero,” Andrews said. “There’s a $100 million cut from the state police budget, along with eliminating a number of positions in the department.”
Andrews says a lot of the cuts depend on eliminating positions that aren’t currently occupied. Republican leaders say they’re “phantom jobs” that departments are receiving money for but not filling. Andrews says that’s not correct.
“What they’re trying to claim is that there’s money going to pay for jobs that don’t exist. The reality is that these are jobs that need to exist, that departments are actively trying to hire for.”
Andrews says cutting that funding would lock understaffed departments into that state. For example, he cites the ongoing recruitment efforts of Michigan State Police, which would be affected by that agency’s $100 million cut.
The deadline for a budget to be finalized is October 1, and Andrews is now predicting lawmakers will run the negotiations right up to that point. He thinks some actually want a government shutdown.
House Republicans say their spending plan eliminates waste and potential fraud.
