DETROIT – Michigan state workers at Detroit’s Cadillac Place and other government facilities face uncertainty as the state inches closer to a potential government shutdown, with just one week remaining before the Oct. 1 fiscal year deadline.
The budget impasse stems from missed deadlines and partisan disagreements. While the state budget traditionally passes by July 1, lawmakers have yet to reach an agreement for the upcoming fiscal year.
The political divide centers on spending priorities and allegations of fiscal mismanagement.
“There’s critical programs in our budgets, just making sure that our most vulnerable Michiganders, who rely on our schools here and our health care system and making sure that those programs are in place,” said House Minority Leader Ranjeev Puri (D-Canton Township).
House Speaker Matt Hall (R-Richland Township) points to what he sees as the core issue: “The biggest sticking point is the Senate Democrats are trying to protect waste, fraud and abuse.”
Both sides claim they’re working to prevent a shutdown.
“I can tell you that legislative Democrats are working around the clock to do whatever we can to avoid a shutdown,” Puri said.
Hall echoes similar sentiments, stating he’s “doing everything” possible with Gov. Whitmer to avoid a shutdown scenario.
Hall said Republicans are willing to compromise on the free school meal program that Democrats want included in the budget.
“We’ve offered that to them, but they’re trying to protect waste, fraud and abuse, and expand welfare and have non-transparent pork spending in this budget. Those are the things we’re not going to compromise on,” he said.
Republicans want to cut $5 billion of spending from the state budget.
Puri disagrees with that dollar amount and emphasizes his party, like Republicans, doesn’t want to see tax dollars wasted.
“Democrats are willing to look if there are ways to find efficiency, will be the first in line to sign up to do that, but to say that there’s $5 billion of waste, fraud and abuse in our budget is a gross mischaracterization of how our budget actually works,” he said.
Local 4 contacted the State Budget Office to glean what the immediate impact of a government shutdown would be. The office has yet to respond.
On Sept. 16, State Budget Office spokesperson Lauren Leeds told Local 4 in a statement that it was “too early” to determine what a shutdown would look like.
Michigan’s last government shutdown occurred in 2009, though it lasted only a few hours with no immediate impact on state services.
