LANSING, MI (WHTC-AM/FM) – State leaders are taking the latest budget numbers for this and the next two fiscal years with a grain of salt.
Some Capitol observers were surprised on Monday when the join t revenue estimating conference unveiled projections which showed, according to state Treasurer Rachael Eubanks, “the decline in revenues have not been as severe as we had forecasted in May, in the early days of the (COVID 19) pandemic … however, we are still down nearly $1 billion overall from January’s forecast.
“Federal stimulus programs played a critical role in indirectly supporting state revenues,” Eubanks added, but as former Ottawa County Treasurer and current first term state House Representative Brad Slagh of Zeeland Township cautions, “There’s some time for us to work right now, trying to set ourselves up using those (federal) dollars,” in a Tuesday interview on “WHTC Morning News.” “We still need to be wise about our budget decisions; we need to be thinking about how do we make things happen well.”
Budget Director Chris Kolb and Governor Gretchen Whitmer continues to press Michigan’s Congressional Delegation for further federal stimulus dollars, but Slagh and other majority Republicans in the Legislature say that the state should not be relying on such help from Washington to make up a nearly 4.2 billion dollar budget hole over the next two fiscal years.
