Mich. governor to lay out revised 2010-11 budget plan Weds. for lawmakers dealing with deficit

Granholm to lay out revised 2010-11 budget plan

LANSING, Mich. — Gov. Jennifer Granholm plans to lay out a revised spending plan for lawmakers Wednesday and said she hopes they work quickly to get the budget in place.

“We have to get it resolved,” she told reporters Tuesday.

Michigan faces a deficit in the budget year that starts Oct. 1, even though the state is in line to get about $698 million more federal dollars for public schools and Medicaid.

The Democratic governor said Tuesday she wants lawmakers to finish up next year’s budget soon. She already has signed a school spending bill into law, but deep differences remain between the Republican-controlled Senate and Democratic-controlled House over what the rest of the budget should look like.

Republicans in the Senate already have passed about $1.3 billion in cuts for next fiscal year but Democrats are opposed to many of the measures. Senate Majority Leader Mike Bishop, R-Rochester, said Tuesday after the Senate met that he’s hopeful leaders will be able to set budget targets after hearing Granholm’s plan.

Budget deficit estimates for the current fiscal year have been as high as $300 million in recent months. The general fund deficit for the fiscal year starting Oct. 1 could be nearly $200 million to more than $600 million, depending on whether budget plans favored by Republicans or Democrats are used as a starting point.

“We have to resolve the current year shortfall. That’s got to be done simultaneously with what we do with the next fiscal year,” Bishop said. “We believe we can do that all at the same time. The problem gets worse, every day that goes by.”

The House wasn’t in session Tuesday, but will return Wednesday to hear Granholm’s budget plan.

Bishop said this year’s budget negotiations have been complicated because it’s an election year and several lawmakers in both parties have been seeking re-election or new offices. Bishop is one of two Republicans hoping to win his party’s nomination for attorney general at the Aug. 28 GOP state convention, and many lawmakers faced opponents in the Aug. 3 primary election.

“It’s made it worse this year with an election,” Bishop said of the budget process. “Everybody disappeared over the summer. It was almost impossible to get a hold of anybody to have any real discussion.”

Granholm said she understood the primary election and upcoming GOP and Democratic state conventions have distracted lawmakers from dealing with the budget. She hopes to see progress “now that people are back and focused.”

State budget director Bob Emerson was more biting in his criticism, even though the administration waited to present its final budget solution until Congress acted last week to pass bills that will send about $318 million to Michigan schools and about $380 million more to the state for Medicaid.

“Essentially July was wasted. Most of August has been wasted,” Emerson told reporters. “It would be nice if people began getting more serious about this because, the last time I looked, we had about seven weeks to the start of the fiscal year.”

Associated Press Writer Tim Martin contributed to this report.