Michigan state lawmakers come back to the capitol this week for more budget talks. It’s been two weeks since the House and Senate left off after being unable to reach a deal over school funding.
That’s to the dismay of school groups that say districts had to pass their own budgets without knowing how much money they’d have.
K-12 Alliance of Michigan Executive Director Robert McCann said he’s not sure lawmakers are any closer now.
“There hasn’t been a lot of conversation around the last couple of weeks that there’s been earnest negotiations happening, that there’s been progress made toward getting this deal done. It’s just been very quiet instead,” McCann said.
The Democratic-controlled Senate has wanted to pass the entire state budget at once. It’s something that’s unlikely any time soon, especially since the Republican-led House still hasn’t unveiled most of its department budget proposals.
Meanwhile, House leadership wants to start with passing school and road funding plans side-by-side.
Transportation advocates have been pushing for road funding not to get lost in the budget debate.
Ed Noyola is the legislative director with the County Road Association of Michigan.
“Doing nothing is not an option right now. We’re doing the minimum repairs [and] improvements to our infrastructure. And I’m pretty sure the cities and the villages are doing the same thing. So, the sooner the Legislature acts on this, the better off we’ll all be,” he said.
Noyola said a roads deal doesn’t necessarily have to get tied to schools like Republicans want. He just hopes lawmakers find a way to put around $3 billion toward roads, regardless of whether that’s through a House-backed proposal or a different framework suggested by the governor.
McCann and his group oppose tying roads and schools together, arguing the plan could take revenue away from schools.
Another sticking point seems to be whether to continue funding specific items like free school meals, or give districts more money in general and let them choose what to do with it.
McCann said it might not be a bad idea to re-think school funding, though he argues that should’ve been brought up earlier in the year.
“Those are conversations that need to be held in February, not in July. We can’t be opening our doors to students over the summer and into the fall and radically re-shape how funding works. That would send countless districts into deficit,” he said.
The Republican House speaker has said he offered to add some school funding earmarks favored by Democrats back into the budget. Democrats wanted to see more of the budget first.
