Democrats “blow through” the July 1 budget deadline, as promised

On June 13, Michi­gan Sen­ate Appro­pri­a­tion Chair­man Sarah Antho­ny (D‑Lansing) told the Detroit News she was “will­ing to blow through that [July 1] dead­line” to pass a state bud­get.

True to form, the Democ­rats ignored the July 1 bud­get, and now the clock is tick­ing for a bud­get to be worked out before it expires on Sep­tem­ber 30.

The dead­line was actu­al­ly set by law, but noth­ing can force a leg­is­la­ture to fol­low rules set by a pre­vi­ous leg­is­la­ture.

It’s been “extreme­ly frus­trat­ing” said Robert McCann, exec­u­tive direc­tor of the K‑12 Alliance of Michi­gan, a pub­lic schools advo­ca­cy orga­ni­za­tion.

“If a bud­get is a 10 step process, usu­al­ly at this point you’re at kind of like step eight,” said McCann, of the K‑12 alliance. “This year we’re kind of at step three.” 

The Sen­ate’s exor­bi­tant $84.5 bil­lion orig­i­nal plan was ren­dered out of bal­ance when state offi­cials low­ered rev­enue pro­jec­tions in May.