Spending bills to close the books on the last fiscal year’s budget made it out of the Michigan Senate Appropriations Committee Tuesday.
The legislation shuffles around money to cover higher spending in areas like Medicaid and behavioral health. It’s part of an annual process for each state budget so the state can move forward with the next year without risking its credit score.
Lawmakers typically aim to have the books closed before they leave office at the end of the legislative session. But that doesn’t always happen.
The 2022-2023 Michigan legislative session left its book-closing work to future lawmakers. The response was a sizeable spending bill that put money toward economic development projects, housing, and workforce development.
Senator Sarah Anthony (D-Lansing) chairs the state Senate Appropriations Committee. She said she doesn’t expect this time to go like that, and laid out several higher bars for adding supplemental spending to last year's budget.
“My view on supplementals, is it necessary or do we need to bring forward new options and new items that may not make sense during the traditional budget process? So are there things that are timely? Are there things that hamstring a department's ability to serve the public?” Anthony said.
Each of the spending items in the current book-closing bills was requested by the State Budget Office, which works under Governor Gretchen Whitmer.
The bills, however, make up less than half of what the budget office had requested.
Anthony said the process is part of a negotiation with the Republican-led House and the governor’s office about what spending happens at this step.
“Today is not the expansive list that the administration did request, but again, that's what makes it a negotiation. So, this really is almost a symbolic first step in the process to get this done, but you know someone has to be the adult in the room and actually want to close the books,” Anthony said.
On the House side, full membership of the House Appropriations Committee was just named last week.
In a text message, House Committee Chair Ann Bollin (R-Brighton) said the committee, “will continue our review of the book closing.”
Bollin added that she looks “forward to monitoring the Senate’s actions.”
Meanwhile, Wednesday will be the first chance for committees in both chambers to work side by side this year.
Whitmer’s office is set to present her budget recommendations for the upcoming fiscal year to a joint committee hearing at 11 a.m.