Michigan Votes Forum

Introduced in the Senate on February 18, 2009

The vote was 21 in favor, 16 opposed and 0 not voting

(Senate Roll Call 476 at Senate Journal 0)

Click here to view bill details.

 

Senators Gleason, Scott, Brater, Jacobs, Clark-Coleman and Prusi, under their constitutional right of protest (Art. 4, Sec. 18), protested against the passage of Senate Bill No. 252.

Senators Gleason, Scott, Brater, Jacobs and Clark-Coleman moved that the statements they made during the discussion of the bills be printed as their reasons for voting “no.”

The motion prevailed.

Senator Gleason’s statement is as follows:

Factually, we have had the same obligation for a number of days whether we were going to consider a shutdown. Just because we have run out of time doesn’t mean that we had a greater responsibility today than we did a month ago to prevent a shutdown. I think we have some serious concerns about this budget and the previous one as well, when we were fighting for our fair share of the stimulus dollars to come to our state and to provide services for our schools and our infrastructure.

One of the telling obligations we had as a state was that we had to maintain that current funding, or we could compromise or jeopardize that stimulus money. Who in this room has put thought into, if we cut our school funding by $218.00, we may jeopardize the allowance from the federal stimulus money? When we look at what has actually occurred in the last few days with our schools, both parents and students, including the administrators saying that they can’t live with a $218.00 reduction in the student allowance, in per-pupil funding.

And, now yet, here we are at the midnight hour saying we are going to do it. We will slide it in, potentially, with a precedent setting idea. Let’s put a noncontinuation budget before us and give it that same name, a continuation budget. We put our schools in difficult straits many times because of the disparity and the calendar year/fiscal year funding. They look to us in July to make sure that they have the resources available for their day-to-day and monthly obligations up until we make our decisions in October. But to pull a rug out from underneath each and every one of our school districts across this state at this late hour does not make sense. How dare us say that we were willing and honored to take the oath of being a Senator and fully understand and comprehend and undertake our constitutional obligations. And yet, at this late hour, we say “no.” We refuse individually to undertake the responsibility to fund these needed services. How do you answer to your students back home that they can’t make it on the current allowance? Yet we are going to cut it by $218.00 today and tomorrow and, by the way, the whole month of October.

Let’s call this what it is. It is not a continuation budget. Under any definition, a continuation tells you that it is the consistency of a current event. This is not a continuation budget. How dare we use that terminology to those who we represent, particularly the most difficult and hardest to serve schools. The inner-city schools have struggled, and many times we intervene on their day-to-day operations as well. Now we are hurting them in a way unknown to them. They have always lived with the resources we have given them, but we have never hidden behind a continuation budget that is not a continuation budget that slashed these schools $218.00 per pupil, knowing that they can’t make it today. We have all heard the news that health care is harming our schools financially, and therefore, educationally. Let’s not do this today. Let’s not set a precedent; then in future years, we will use a target effort that our targets that we set months before hand will be utilized as a continuation budget when, indeed, it isn’t.

So let’s do the right thing. If you are going to call it a continuation budget, let’s do just exactly that—have a continuation budget. So I say we vote this down and, indeed, enact a true continuation budget.

 

Senator Scott’s statement, in which Senator Gleason concurred, is as follows:

I’m going to read you just a few paragraphs from one of my constituents. I have received so many e-mails such as this:

“At no point in my life have I ever been more dissatisfied with government. I have seen much political maneuvering in my short life, but the politics coming out of Lansing are probably the most disastrous acts perpetrated on the state of Michigan. As a parent, as a taxpayer, as a voter, I am utterly fed up with what the legislature is doing.

Isn’t there a sane person in Lansing who understands that cutting $218 per pupil is a death sentence to Michigan public schools? There is no way that any school system in this state will be able to survive the school year facing these cuts. It saddens me to see that the state legislature is about to make draconian cuts to schools in Michigan. This proposed cut is ill-fated to schools in Michigan and is a signal to everyone that Michigan legislators do not care about the future of the state of Michigan.

At no time in Michigan history have we ever witnessed this type of betrayal. Education is the most important function of state government and the state is going to cut funding to students. At a time when we should be expanding the funding of schools, Michigan is going to cut. How could this be? The state legislators are betraying the future of the state of Michigan; betraying the citizens who elected them; betraying the hundreds of thousands of school children who will lose out on a proper education.”

We have the opportunity to get a budget in this week and to put the dollars in that we need for our school system. We are worst than Third World countries; they do care about their children.

 

Senator Brater’s statement, in which Senators Hunter and Cherry concurred, is as follows:

I rise to express my reasons for voting “no” on this so-called continuation budget. It is true that we need to keep this government functioning. It is true that we need to put in place funding for K-12 education in this state in a prompt and timely manner. However, the bill before us is not the only way to do that.

First of all, it does not have to be based on the assumption that we are going to solve this problem through all cuts and not looking at the revenue side of the picture or some type of tax restructuring that would reflect our current economic realities. Pretty much, we are operating based on self-inflicted wounds at this point. In this Legislature, we know that there are tools in terms of loophole closures, in terms of repealing outdated tax expenditures that are no longer relevant to our current economy. We have had various proposals for targeted ways of raising revenues.

We know those are on the table, so it is totally irresponsible to put this budget before us that is jeopardizing the quality of education for the children of the state of Michigan; that is jeopardizing our future, and then take off for the weekend shirking our responsibility when we should be here working seriously to put the revenues in place so that we don’t have to be adopting a budget based on 25 percent revenue decrease. Two hundred and eighteen dollars in cuts—which is what this is per pupil—which is what this budget assumes that you are asking us to vote for, is not a responsible thing to vote for.

So I think that we have the solutions at our disposal. We have the processes in place. We could stay here in Lansing and work across the aisle in a way that we know we are going to have to do eventually. We have had plenty of time to do this over many months now. We know that we have had this problem for many, many months, so to wait till the last minute and put this type of budget before us is like putting a gun to the head of the public education system here in Michigan. I know that I am hearing desperate calls for help from my school officials in my district. I am sure you are all hearing the same.

So lets’ stay here, let’s get serious, and let’s fix this problem.

 

Senator Jacobs’ statement is as follows:

The Majority Floor Leader indicated that this was a deal that was struck by our Senate leadership and our House leadership. I don’t remember hearing anything about our Senate Democratic leadership. This budget does not reflect our priorities. It doesn’t reflect the priorities of the people in my district who are calling me, writing me, and sending me e-mails. In fact, we are creating a very bad precedent for this Legislature. Our job is to get the people’s work done. There is plenty of time. I can count on one hand the number of times that we were even in session this summer.

We were all ready to roll up our sleeves and do the work. To be put up against the wall, to have to make decisions that truly devastate our districts is shameful. The people of Michigan deserve so much better than this. I ask my colleagues, let’s get the work done. Let’s stay through the weekend. Let’s do whatever we need to do to do this. Senator Brater said we have the solutions at hand. There are ways we can do this. Let’s get the work done.

Senator Clark-Coleman’s statement is as follows:

I am willing to stay here. I am willing to get it done. Are you?

Senator Prusi’s statement is as follows:

The Majority Leader reminded us that on June 26 the Republicans with, admittedly, very little help passed a budget that he calls balanced. We have some question of whether or not that was a balanced budget that left this chamber on June 26. Subsequent to that, we met 16 days in the proceeding 90 days to continue the work on the budget. Just because one party passes a budget doesn’t make it a budget. It doesn’t constitute a compromise when it is all your way and no one else’s suggestions, no one else’s solutions are incorporated into the possible budget solutions. To call that budget a budget—wishing does not make it so.

We stand ready. We have solutions. We have potential compromises. We have offered up significant cuts in various departmental budgets, but we will not accept a budget that trashes the priorities that the people of the state of Michigan sent us here to defend—the early childhood program, the scholarship programs, the public safety that is funded through our revenue sharing program, and the medical care and Medicaid that funds the health care of the indigent and the elderly in this state.

We will not accept a budget that continues to trash and decimate those priorities. I will agree with the Majority Leader; you did send a budget out of here. Why should we be asked to accept that budget as though it were gospel from on high. We will not accept a budget that trashes those priorities. This caucus will continue to stand for those principles that we have been speaking about all summer long and into the fall.

Senators Prusi, Cherry, Jacobs, Clark-Coleman, Anderson, Brater, Gleason, Basham, Scott and Hunter, under their constitutional right of protest (Art. 4, Sec. 18), protested against the passage of Senate Bill Nos. 831 and 252.

Senator Prusi moved that the statement he made during the discussion of Senate Bill No. 831 be printed as his reasons for voting “no.”

The motion prevailed.

Senator Prusi’s statement, in which Senators Cherry, Jacobs, Clark-Coleman, Anderson, Brater, Gleason, Basham, Scott and Hunter concurred, is as follows:

While I fully understand the nature and the necessity of this bill, I cannot understand why we are passing a continuation budget when the issues that are before us are clear. We have been working on these issues since February. The options and solutions are before us. We have vehicle bills to solve some of the revenue problems. We have the solution in hand. We have five days before the government shutdown. The House has posted session for Saturday and Sunday, yet here we are in a rush to kick the can down the road and to prolong this agony.

I see absolutely no need for us to pass continuation budgets when we have solutions clearly before us. All we need to do is stick around here and debate them. Conference committees can be meeting. Conference reports can be put before us. We can do our work without having to worry about going until Halloween in order to get a budget passed here.

I encourage a “no” vote on this continuation budget. I encourage this body to stay in this chamber instead of fleeting off to Mackinac Island to play politics and to party. I think we have work before us and for us to abrogate our responsibilities for the nature of what this weekend contains for some members I think is unsuitable for this body. I would prefer that we would stay here, continue our work; do the work that the people sent us here to do; and get a budget passed by next Wednesday.

Senators Cropsey, Bishop, Cassis and Prusi asked and were granted unanimous consent to make statements and moved that the statements be printed in the Journal.

The motion prevailed.

Senator Cropsey’s statement is as follows:

I guess sometimes I am amazed at the words that fly around in this body. The leadership here in the Senate—Republican leadership—along with the chairman of the Appropriations Committee, came to agreement with the leadership in the House—Democratic leadership—the Speaker of the House and the chairman of the Appropriations Committee in the House came together in a bipartisan agreement. That leadership realizes that the state of Michigan’s budget is in a tough situation. They also realize that the revenues have not come into the state as we would have wished.

Much of our state government will be facing a 9 percent to 12 percent cut. The chairman of the Appropriations Committee, who also heads up the K-12 subcommittee, was able to come up with a budget of around 2.5 percent to 3 percent cut for K-12 education, which when you consider what the rest of state government is doing, is really amazing. I would like to commend him for that.

Let’s face it. If the House of Representatives and the Senate don’t pass full-year budgets by Wednesday night at midnight, the government will shut down. Therefore, we need to have some budgets in place to keep things open for another month, and let’s have it based upon what we believe that the revenues are. We do have a continuation budget that is based upon the economic realities of the state of Michigan.

What you have in front of you is what I hope we don’t have to do, which is to pass a continuation budget and set it on the Governor’s desk, but it may become necessary to do so. You have a choice here. Are we going to have a backup plan—we have a five-day problem—and make sure that government doesn’t shutdown? Are we going to say “Take a flying leap,” and shut down government?

It is not an easy choice to say that we are going to pass a 2.5 or 3 percent cut to schools. We are going to pass a cut to the rest of state government. It is not an easy choice, but it is a whole lot better than closing things down. That is your choice. For me, I think we ought to keep the government going. I would urge everyone to vote for this bill not because it is a bill that people like, but because it could be a necessity that we will have to face.

Senator Bishop’s statement is as follows:

I just wanted to make something perfectly clear and remind the folks here about history because back in June—June 26—this chamber—Senate Republicans moved a balanced budget over to the House. We opened a dialog, a discussion in our Appropriations Committee and had an open and vibrant discussion about the future of our state and our budget. We moved that from the Appropriations Committee into the Senate for a full and open debate. We moved that budget over to the House, frankly, with very little help from the other side. We did it because we believe that, No. 1, we have a constitutional responsibility to balance a budget; and No. 2, that we have a responsibility to have a discussion in the open and that it be transparent for all to see. Our budget has been done and has been on the Internet for all to see since that date in June.

To suggest that we are, somehow shirking our duty by standing here today and passing a continuation budget is ridiculous. This discussion about staying here over the weekend is opportunistic and political, and we all know it. We have been here every day since June 26 to get this thing done, and all of a sudden, you want to accelerate this and finish it this weekend. Well, as soon as we see progress and as soon we see a plan to get that done, we will be the first to be here, the first to check in, and the first to deliver the votes to make sure that that happens because we believe that we do have a constitutional responsibility; that it is our responsibility to ensure that this government does not shut down. But quit with the ridiculous suggestions that somehow we are not here for the purpose of balancing this budget this weekend and that somehow something is going to get done.

We have got to rely on our friends across the Capitol to provide us with some help in this process as well. It goes true for the Governor. The Governor has to step up and lead, and it shouldn’t be the last weekend before the budget deadline. I just want to make it clear that the fact that we are here today less than a week away from our budget deadline without a budget is not because we have not had leadership. This Republican leadership put a budget on the table and got it done. We are prepared to stay here as long as we have to to make sure that happens.

I hope that in future when we talk about leadership, we will not try to revise history to suggest that somehow, someway the Senate has not lead because Senate Republicans have stepped up, and it is about time we get this job done. So if you want to close this budget agreement right now, get your House to vote on it. Get your Governor to lead, and let’s get it done. Until then, quit the rhetoric.

Senator Cassis’ statement is as follows:

We are going to be providing a tribute to a very special man. It is indicative of how both sides of the aisle, Republicans and Democrats, can come together in valuing a very special individual who has served this Senate so well. Senator Prusi, Senator Gretchen Whitmer, Senator Mickey Switalski, Senator Mike Bishop, our Majority Leader, Senator Ron Jelinek, and myself, we are all here to honor Jay Wortley.

As many of you know, he has made a career out of being in public service to our great state. We have relied on his many talents over the years in conference committees, consensus revenue estimating committees, and just the opportunity of calling him up with some much-needed requests for advice or information. He has always been there for us. He has given us the very best information to be able to do our jobs. For that, we are extremely, extremely grateful. On top of that, he is just a very good, sincere human being who has made it a pleasure for all of us to know him as our friend.

This tribute we present to you today, knowing that you are not going far, just over to Treasury— new opportunity, a new journey in life. We respect your decision, but you need to know that we all will miss you. You have been a great, great deal of support to all of us.

Senator Prusi’s statement is as follows:

It is weird to be speaking on this side of the aisle after my previous remarks under Protests. Putting all of that aside, all of us are well aware that just because our names are on the ballots and we have a nameplate on our desks does not make us the ultimate work producers here in this chamber. All of us rely on the staff in our office, our central staff, and our nonpartisan staff. Without the talents of people like Jay and others in his agency, we would all be fumbling and bumbling even worse than we are today.

Jay, we really appreciate the work that you have provided, the service and the support that you have given to the Senate over the years. Like Senator Cassis, all of us are truly going to miss your talents and miss your personality because you are a really nice guy. We want to thank you and wish you well in the future.

A death sentence to Michigan K-12 schools would be the best thing to happen. Get rid of them and the powerful and greedy MEA and start from scratch. Our public schools are a massive failure and a HUGE drain on Michigans budget and more importantly what's left of Michigans hard working tax payers.

Will the last person who leaves Michigan please turn out the lights........

 I agree.  Public schools are a dismal failure.  Cut our taxes and let us pay for our own children's' education.  Subsidize tuition for low income parents.