Senate Democrats’ principled stand during a marathon legislative session before an impending government shutdown opposed drastic cuts to the state services Michigan residents hold most dear—early childhood education, college and worker retraining scholarships, police and fire services and health care. Throughout the budget process, Senate Democrats maintained that a reasonable budget solution must include tough cuts, significant reforms, and generate enough revenue to avoid extreme and dangerous cuts.

With an October 1^st deadline of balancing the fiscal year budget looming, Senate Democrats pointed out that a temporary budget to prevent a shutdown or harmful cuts was an option worth considering. After asking for a similar budget last week and receiving one from the House of Representatives earlier in the day, Senate Republicans still refused to move the legislation before midnight and left the entire state under a cloud of uncertainty for several hours.

During the debate, Senate Republicans stubbornly stuck to forcing the passage of their proposed budgets that included excessive and shortsighted cuts that would hurt our families and economic recovery. Senate Democrats have conceded that difficult budget cuts must be made, but have refused to sacrifice the essential programs that provide funding for early childhood education, college and worker retraining scholarships, police and firefighters to keep our families safe, and health care for Michigan’s vulnerable citizens.

While working with the Republicans to pass a majority of the budgets before the Senate, Democrats stood firm on our key priorities. Republicans were forced to end the shutdown and there is now a chance for a true compromise to be reached, instead of a cuts-only approach that Michigan can not afford. Senate Republicans’ extreme proposal included $73.75 million in cuts to early childhood education, $201.8 million cut from worker retraining and scholarship programs—including the elimination of the Michigan Promise Scholarship, $160 million to local police and fire protection, and $112 million in health care services.

Discussions of alternatives will continue for the next 30 days until a final budget resolution must be reached at the end of October. Senate Democrats will stay vigilant in our effort to reach a solution that prevents some of the most devastating cuts initially proposed.

School Aid Budget:

• The Senate passed the 2008-2009 K-12/School Aid budget late last week. The budget included an increase in per pupil funding between $56 and $112 on a sliding scale based on existing funding, ensuring lower funded schools received the greatest increase. Other highlights include a $10 million increase for Early Childhood programs, including $5 million for the Early Childhood Investment Corporation and a $5 million increase for school readiness programs. Child and Adolescent Health Centers received a $1 million increase. Governor Granholm’s 21st Century Schools proposal received $15 million in grants that will go to districts with less than a 70% graduation rate to develop schools designed to incorporate a more interactive curriculum and reduce the dropout rate. The House is expected to consider the School Aid budget Wednesday, July 23, and it could be sent to the Governor for signing as early as Thursday.

Budgets signed last week:

• The Governor signed most of the 2008-2009 budget bills on Friday, July 18, including budgets for the Department of State Police, Department of Community Health, Department of Labor and Economic Growth, and Community Colleges. With her signature, eleven of the state’s budgets have been approved and finalized for 2008-2009 and the process continues to be well ahead of last year.

Committee action:

• The General Government Appropriations Subcommittee is planning on completing its work on the General Government budget on Wednesday, July 23, which includes local revenue sharing for police, fire, and public safety. When an agreement is reached, it will move to the House and Senate for final approval.
• The Full Appropriations Committee will meet Thursday, July 24, at 9:00 a.m. The current expected agenda includes House Bill 6250 and the Department of Human Services budget supplemental, though it is subject to change.
• The Government Operations and Reform Committee will meet on Thursday, July 24, at 11:00 a.m.

Session schedule:

• The Senate will meet for session on Thursday morning, July 24, though the legislative agenda has yet to be set and is contingent on other committee meetings this week.

Ask any Michigan Legislator what their top priority is this year, and you’re likely to hear a similar response from most of them—jobs. While we may differ on the best way to transform our economy and create an environment for job growth, it’s rare that the Legislature actually gets an opportunity to directly influence the job market.

That’s exactly what we have on our hands this year with the Capital Outlay budget—an opportunity for construction workers to get started on major building projects at community colleges, universities and local airports across the state.

Each of the proposed projects for our state’s public universities were identified as the #1 building priority for that school. Unfortunately, all those “number one” priorities for growth and expansion could get delayed another year because of the Legislature’s second-guessing. These projects have already been postponed for far too long, and with the Capital Outlay budget responsible for up to 75% of the construction costs in some instances, they will never get off the ground without our support.

This is precisely the type of economic stimulus that Michigan needs right now. In the short-term, it means more jobs for building and construction workers in our state. In the long-term, these are projects that will improve our colleges and universities by building up programs that focus on high-growth sectors of the economy—like life sciences—which will help create 21st Century jobs.

The choice is simple. We can either be a roadblock or a red carpet for economic growth here in Michigan. All of these ventures are vital to our state’s economic development, and we shouldn’t delay any of them any further. This investment needs to be approved, and without further delay.

What a difference a year makes.

The Senate finished a productive week in Lansing, finishing 7 of 8 budget bills. While the spotlight has been on the Mayor of Detroit and the Presidential Campaign, Michigan legislators have been quietly doing our jobs. In March, we moved the budget bills through subcommittees, full Appropriations committees, and finally through the full Senate this week. We reached consensus on most budgets. Even when we did have disagreements, particularly on the K-12 School Aid Budget and the Community Health Budget, we kept the debate on the issues and not on a partisan or personal basis.

That is a stark contrast from last year.

We are on target to finish our budget ahead of time this year, well before July 1st. You may recall that we didn’t finish last year until November, and the Government actually shut down for a few hours in October before we could reach any agreements. The constant bickering, the all-night sessions, the dueling press conferences are all so last year.

There is a new spirit of cooperation and mutual respect between the parties and the chambers this year. It’s like when you finally have the big fight in the schoolyard, the antagonists bloody each other up and then become friends.

It is kind of like that in the Michigan Legislature. Once you’ve gone through an ordeal like last year’s battle, you know whom you can trust and you also gain respect and understanding of where colleagues are coming from. Even when you disagree, you find a way to argue without losing your temper. You concentrate reaching a conclusion, not fighting for its own sake.

That’s where we are now. We disagreed about funding for School Districts. But when the Senate Fiscal Agency informed us that Revenue Estimates would have to be lowered $380 million because of the

decline in property values and resulting property tax payments, we agreed to lower the funding increase for schools.

That is the reasonable thing to do, but in the past that hasn’t always happened.

We had a spirited debate about how much to give every district and how big of an equity payment or bonus to pay to the lowest funded districts. I offered an amendment to raise the minimum all districts would get and lower the bonus payments only some would get, and it failed by one vote.

We had a spirited debate, and I lost. But I then addressed the Senate Chamber.

I voted for the bill, as did most of my colleagues.

"You know, this marks the seventh of eight budget bills that we are going to do in this chamber, originating in this chamber. I would like to thank the Senate for the rapidity with which we have moved these bills. You know, yesterday and today we had good debates about some fundamental issues on bills, but we had good, respectful debates. We had honest and open exchange of views and we came to a conclusion. We’ve received agreement on these bills.

I think I’d like to thank the members for the way that they’ve conducted themselves on some things that are pretty hard issues and some have pretty strong feelings about them. I think what we’ve done stands in contrast to last year. I think it’s a message to the people of Michigan that it’s a new day, and we’ve demonstrated by our actions far better than any words that things are different. Michigan has turned a corner and we are ahead of schedule. I think we’re looking at we’ll finish our business before the 1st of July. I think that’s a great goal, and it will show the people of Michigan that this Legislature is working together to solve problems.

Now we do have differences on the form and the size of equity payments in this and the need for early childhood and for small high schools, but overall, this budget accomplishes many worthwhile goals. There is a foundation increase almost double the size of what we had last year, and it provides additional dollars for declining enrollments, school-based health centers, credit recovery for students who failed algebra, and hold harmless funding of $4.7 million for school readiness. The infrastructure grants provide almost $20 per pupil to districts, and the health care and pension contributions for school districts have gone done for the second year in a row. That is almost unheard of. Everywhere else, we’re worried about double-digit increases in health care. That is a very significant savings statistic. So these are important improvements from where we stood a year ago, Mr. President. You remember, we were down $1.75 billion in the hole. We really had no hopes of getting a budget done. It took us until October to get finished. We had about this time of the year, we had just passed a budget bill that had cut $300 million out of the School Aid Fund and zeroed out a proposed 2.5 percent increase. We ended up giving a percent last year and now nearly 2 percent this year.

So I think this bill today validates the actions we took last fall, and I think it’s an honest budget. It’s free of any gimmicks, one-time spending, or smoke or mirrors. We’ve got something that we all can be proud of. So while it’s not a perfect bill, this K-12 budget is one that I’m proud to support. It doesn’t mean I didn’t think the 2X-plus would have been better, but on balance, this is a good budget. I hope all members will support it."

They did.

This Wednesday I made the following statement during session about the capital outlay budget proposed by Gov. Granholm, and I wanted to share it with my constituents:

I want to remind our members that Governor Granholm submitted her budget recommendations just last month, and I am glad to be saying that we are on schedule for most of it and will be working on those budgets in the next couple of weeks. At that time, however, she also proposed a capital outlay budget, and it is up to us to review those recommendations that she has made and change them if we see fit. As I see it, we should pass this budget and make those proposals a reality as swiftly and decisively as we can so that those funds can be dispersed.

The Governor’s proposal includes nearly $1 billion for university and community college construction projects and $42 million in renewable energy incentives to those institutions that will make sure the government’s green is going toward the construction of cleaner and greener buildings. This is exactly the type of economic stimulus that Michigan needs right now.

In the short-term, it means more jobs for building and constructions workers in our state. In the long-term, these are projects that will improve our college and universities by building up programs that will help diversify our economy and create 21st century jobs. The choice is ours. We can either be a roadblock or a red carpet for economic growth here in Michigan.

The urgency that has surrounded some of these projects should apply to all of them, as these are projects that are important to the economy. We run the risk of losing $100 million in federal funds attached to some projects if we don’t act soon, and many of our colleges and universities have been waiting several years for their projects to be approved. They have already been delayed and postponed for too long, and with our budget responsible for up to 75 percent of these project costs, they will never get off the ground without our support. Each of the ten proposed projects for our state’s public universities were identified as the No. 1 building priority for that school. Of those No. 1 priorities for growth and expansion, they could end up delayed yet another year because we are second-guessing.

These airports, agencies, and institutions have a great deal of money attached to these building projects that will create jobs, spur growth, and stimulate economic development and encourage health and technology services. We could be putting building and construction workers to work right now while also laying the groundwork for future job growth by investing in higher education in high-growth sectors of the economy like life sciences.

What a difference a year makes!

When I walked into the Budget Presentation meeting Thursday in front of the Joint Appropriations Committees, I thought all the air had been sucked out of the room.

And half the people.

Last year, after the Governor announced that she would seek a tax hike, and revealed the details at the Budget Presentation, the tension was so thick you could have cut it with an axe. And you would have needed an axe, because there was a $1.8 billion deficit, and Granholm wanted to make $500 million in cuts.

A year ago, the room was so full of reporters, television cameras, lobbyists, and revolutionaries with pitchforks that I had trouble getting in the door. The aisles were standing room only with people 3 and 4 deep. The pressure was dizzying.

This year the pressure, the temperature, and the rhetoric have all dropped. We made the tough decisions last year to fix the state’s chronic deficits. The combination of cuts, revenues, and reforms did what no one was able to do for six years.

We actually fixed our problem instead of just shoving it off to the next year.

So now it’s next year, and it worked.

We are solvent.

I guess it’s unrealistic to think that we would be saluted as statesmen, or conquering heroes.  After all, that “revenue” word translates as “tax increase.” But the vast majority on both sides of the aisle felt like we did the right thing last year. The benefit may not be public adulation at a ticker-tape parade. But we can walk into a Budget Presentation this year without someone in your face demanding no cuts to their program, while the guy with the pitchfork behind you howls “Don’t Raise my Taxes!”

Instead, we walked in to discuss a budget where there are NO NEW TAXES OR FEE INCREASES. We were presented a budget that IS NOT IN DEFICIT. It actually has a small surplus. We are for the first time in 6 years depositing money into the Rainy Day Fund. And this budget actually has small cost of living increases for Education, Public Safety, and Revenue Sharing to local governments, who have been frozen for 6 years!

Now don’t pass out. But this budget spends less money than last year. Overall, spending has risen because the Feds have given us more money than last year, but our General Fund went DOWN from $9.86 billion to $9.85 billion.

Now I’m starting to feel dizzy again.

So that’s enough for today. I’ll explain how this can be in my next blog.

Till then, start collecting some ticker tape.