GOP lawmakers, Whitmer officials optimistic about finishing budget plan – By Beth LeBlanc (The Detroit News) / Sept 7 2021
Michigan’s Republican-led Legislature and Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s administration are deep in negotiations over the 2022 budget as well as figuring out how to spend an estimated $8 billion more than expected from federal stimulus money and a state surplus.
Budget leaders expressed confidence that the fiscal year spending plan would be finished by the end of the month and avoid the closing of state government, despite a recent email sent out to state agencies warning them to prepare for a shutdown.
Much of the extra $8 billion is likely to be put into a separate supplemental budget in a bid to avoid an over-reliance on the one-time money for long-term programs in the annual budget.
“My biggest concern, and what I’m looking most closely at, is that we don’t increase spending to levels that aren’t sustainable,” said Rep. Thomas Albert, the Lowell Republican who chairs the House Appropriations Committee. “I don’t want to get in a situation where we’re having to make cuts next year.”
