state budget

The Republican state House leader won’t guarantee that Michigan will have a new balanced budget in place by the rapidly approaching July 1 deadline.

Democrats have kept control of the Michigan Senate. Zach Gorchow of Gongwer News Service looks at what the special election results could tell us about November.

In Michigan’s much-watched open 35th Senate district special election, Democrat Chedrick Greene wins the Mid-Michigan race as Dems hold onto their Senate majority.

The Michigan Senate passed the rest of its proposals for the next state budget Thursday. That includes a $25 billion spending plan to fund K-12 schools, colleges, and universities. The plan would raise per-student funding by around $250 per student. It would also continue free school meals, put $300 million toward mental health and school safety grants, and $235 million toward helping children read.

The Senate plan would raise spending, even as the state faces a revenue shortfall. It also comes in around $12 billion over the state House's spending target.

The plan provides nearly $5 billion less than the current state budget. Some of the departments that took the biggest hits include Health and Human Services, Labor and Economic Opportunity, and Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy.

Budget bills are starting to move at the state Capitol as lawmakers attempt to get an earlier start on crafting a spending plan for the coming fiscal year and avert a deadlock similar to last year’s standoff.

The Whitmer administration and Michigan House Republicans have agreed to put a legal fight over GOP-ordered budget cuts on hold because a settlement may be in sight.

The Michigan House approved a more than $152 million spending bill Monday to work on runways at Michigan’s Selfridge Air National Guard” base.The base is expecting federally-funded construction to support a new fighter mission that President Donald Trump announced last year.Michigan House Speaker Matt Hall (R-Richland Twp) said he fears that mission won’t actually happen if the work isn’t done before Trump leaves office.

The issue started in December when the Republican-led Michigan House Appropriations Committee, by itself, tried to cancel around $650 million in earmarked funds, claiming it was unspent money from a previous state budget and should be reallocated to the general fund.