Michigan Votes Forum

Introduced in the House on February 26, 2008, the House-pased version of the Fiscal Year (FY) 2008-2009 Department of History, Arts and Libraries budget. This would appropriate $57.1 million in gross spending, compared to $52.7 million recommended by Gov. Granholm, and $49.5 million, which was the FY 2007-2008 amount enrolled in 2007. Of this, $44.4 million will come from the general fund (funded by actual state tax revenues), compared to the FY 2007-2008 amount of $39.2 million. The House version increases government arts grants by $2.5 million

The vote was 59 in favor, 49 opposed and 2 not voting

(House Roll Call 201 at House Journal 28)

Click here to view bill details.

Rep. Schuitmaker, having reserved the right to explain her protest against the passage of house Bill No. 5804, made the following statement: “Mr. Speaker and members of the House: While I support many programs in this budget, as a whole it has severe problems that need correcting. I cannot ignore the lack of reforms and new structural deficits this bill creates. The FY 2008-2009 budget is dependent on the $1.4 billion tax hike as well as several one-time funding gimmicks which I did not support. If we allow spending to go unchecked, we will have to raise taxes again in the near future. The director of the non-partisan House Fiscal Agency has said we cannot afford the governor’s proposed level of spending. The House budget is even higher than what the governor proposed. I refuse to support spending we cannot afford, especially since doing so will set the stage for another tax hike. Not enough was done last year to cut waste and reform government, and as a result taxes went up. If we want to fix our economy, we need to get our spending problem under control. This budget does not do that. For these reasons, I cannot support this bill at this time.”