Skip to Main
Covid 19

State Legislature Agrees on 2021 COVID-19 Impacted Budget Plan

9&10 Logo

COVID-19 wrecked havoc on the the state budget, both in lost revenue and the cost in fighting it.

But the Legislature still had to balance it out and do it quickly.

Wednesday they got it done, voting on a $62.8 billion plan they are sending to Governor Gretchen Whitmer.

With everything the state of Michigan has gone through with COVID-19, the last thing it needed was a partial government shut down. To avoid that from happening, the state Legislature had to have the budget agreed-upon by September 30.

“There was a lot more concerns because we knew the outcomes if we didn’t do the right thing,” says Senator Curt VanderWall of Ludington.

The budget process is usually a tug-of-war between the parties, fighting for every available dollar. This year, the :egislature just wanted to get it done.

“This budget process is completely different than what it was when you were flush with cash,” says VanderWall

Things could have been worse. Before August, estimations were more than $3 billion short. It ended up being less than a billion.

“Still a lot of money,” says VanderWall, “But billions? It would’ve been devastating.”

That helped soften the blow. While details are trickling out, reports show actual increases to school funding and no cuts to communities.

“I think they’ll be pleasantly surprised to see that a lot of the funding was protected,” says Representative Triston Cole of Mancelona, “Particularly local revenues. I think that’s critical for their local communities.”

If it feels like this is sudden, it’s because it was. For a Legislature that has preached transparency, everything was kept a secret until just hours before being voted on.

“I understand that was a concern and there’s questions about it but time was of the essence,” says Senator Jim Ananich of Flint. “We just had to get it done before the 30th and the House is breaking at the end of the week, so we had to deal with those parameters.”

Next year’s budget also will have COVID-19 related shortfalls but the plan is to get back on that schedule where the state Legislature gets the budget to the governor by the end of June. That was the plan this year until COVID-19 knocked everything back to the deadline.

Governor Whitmer has said she will sign the budget later this week.

9&10 Logo

Local Trending News