Michigan budget director expects different process next year

When state funds director Jen Flood celebrated her first state funds to cross the end line with Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s signature in 2024, she did so whereas injured.

“I informed Flood, break a leg with this funds and she or he did it,” Whitmer joked to reporters after signing that yr’s training funds.

Now it is the funds course of that some have described as damaged this yr, after lawmakers missed the deadline to approve a spending plan for the funds yr ending Sept. 30, 2026. However after Whitmer signed a brand new state funds, Flood touted the ultimate product as proof that opposing events can put apart their variations and make compromises.

In opposition to the backdrop of Washington, D.C., and the federal authorities shutdown that continues to tug on, Flood mentioned she is happy with Michigan.

“We’ve a divided legislature for the primary time in 15 years. We had a highway funding cliff. We handed a invoice by means of Congress this summer season that turned our funds the other way up and left a $1.1 billion gap in it, and we had been capable of convey each events collectively and cross an amazing funds that protects the core capabilities of state authorities, that fixes the roads, that $3 billion in Medicaid funding protects and invests in youngsters at report ranges,” she mentioned in an interview with the Detroit Free Press on Oct. 7.

Whitmer and Senate Majority Chief Winnie Brinks, D-Grand Rapids, equally touted Michigan’s new funds as a nationwide mannequin for bipartisanship in statements issued instantly after the governor signed the funds payments.

In the meantime, Home Speaker Matt Corridor, R-Richland Township, took a victory lap for Home Republicans. “I’ve little question that Republicans gained these negotiations,” he informed reporters at an Oct. 7 information convention.

This yr’s funds totals about $81 billion, Flood mentioned, up from the earlier fiscal yr’s $82.5 billion. Flood expressed hope that the method of creating a spending plan subsequent yr can be “a little bit extra conventional.”

Michigan’s Democratic-led Senate handed its funds proposal in Could. The Republican Social gathering-led Michigan Home authorized its full spending plan in August after funds negotiations reached an deadlock forward of the July 1 deadline for submitting funds payments to the governor. Republicans mentioned that they had spent months going by means of the funds with a fine-tooth comb to root out what they noticed as pointless authorities spending.

“We have clearly had an unconventional yr this yr and I do know it is taken the Home a very long time to undergo the funds line by line, and I am hoping that there is some muscle reminiscence and a few classes discovered from that train that everybody can get it carried out on time come June of subsequent yr,” Flood mentioned.

One of many components of the funds Flood mentioned he’s most happy with is the way it blunted the potential influence of federal adjustments to Medicaid on the state. Flood mentioned the funds ensures “now we have Medicaid funding authorized by the federal authorities,” which can safe funds for well being care suppliers and shield well being care protection.

Michigan funds: After arguments and delays, Governor Whitmer indicators a brand new bipartisan spending plan in Michigan

One factor Flood declined to debate was what would have occurred if the governor had not signed the continuation funds, which gave her and lawmakers per week to proceed negotiations earlier than signing the fiscal yr 2026 funds. However she didn’t describe the interval between midnight, Oct. 1, and three:50 a.m. that day when the governor approved the emergency spending measure like a shutdown. Flood mentioned: “Between midnight and 6am on any given day, no funds are made by the state and so all the pieces continued as regular.”

Now that the funds is prepared, lawmakers will return to different coverage debates, together with financial growth, one thing the governor’s workplace revealed on Oct. 7 was a part of the funds deal. The divided legislature has despatched fewer payments to the governor in comparison with legislative periods through which one celebration controls each chambers. The post-budget interval will take a look at whether or not Michigan lawmakers can come again collectively as they did for the spending plan.

“What I like about budgets is that they have to be carried out, and everybody wants to come back to the desk,” Flood mentioned.

Contact Clara Hendrickson at chendrickson@freepress.com or 313-296-5743.