Michigan Republican leaders told reporters Tuesday budget talks with Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer are “done” and that they want to move on to other legislative issues, according to MLive.
“We felt pressed by time to get the budget done by Sept. 30 – we did,” Michigan House Speaker Lee Chatfield said. “The budget’s over, and we need to talk about policy wins and areas in which we can reach an agreement and move our state forward.”
Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey issued a similar sentiment saying that the “budget’s done” and added, “we’ve got to find some common wins on the policy side.”
Tiffany Brown, a spokeswoman for Whitmer, told MLive that the governor “will continue to hold time on her schedule each day if the Speaker and Senate Majority Leader want to negotiate a supplemental.”
Last week, Republicans introduced a supplemental spending bill that would bring back $264 million Whitmer cut from the state’s final budget. As The Michigan Star previously reported, the Republicans wanted to restore funding to charter schools, veteran services, rural hospital grants, and an autism program.
To counter the GOP proposal, Sen. Curtis Hertel Jr. (D-East Lansing), who worked with the governor, proposed a $476 million supplemental spending bill last Thursday. The Associated Press reports the bill focused on items Whitmer thought Republicans didn’t include in its nearly $60 billion budget proposal.
It seemed progress happened between Whitmer and Republican leaders at last Thursday’s meeting. However, both sides left the meeting at a stalemate, according to Fox News 47.
For the second time since Whitmer passed the final budget on October 1, Shirkey has signaled they want to move on from budget talks.
“The Senate will continue to partner with our colleagues across the aisle and in the House to pass bipartisan policies that benefit all Michiganders,” he said. “We are in no rush to participate in Governor Whitmer’s ‘tug of war’.”
The Senate will continue to partner with our colleagues across the aisle and in the House to pass bipartisan policies that benefit all Michiganders. We are in no rush to participate in @GovWhitmer’s ‘tug of war’. #mileg #migov pic.twitter.com/qMydhkiVbZ
— Sen. Mike Shirkey (@SenMikeShirkey) October 1, 2019
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Zachery Schmidt is the digital editor of Battleground State News. Follow Zachery on Twitter.
