Budget Moving 'Fast' Through Lansing, but Information Still Thin

Ferndale's state Sen. Vincent Gregory (D-Southfield) visited the last week to field questions and further discuss Gov. Rick Snyder's proposed budget cuts.

He started that coffee hour by talking about the speed in which the budget is flying through the committees.

"In the Senate, they are moving fast on the budget," he said to the handful of people who showed up. "They are moving really, really, really fast."

Gregory said that from the Appropriations Committee, the budget will go to the Senate floor, where the body would have to agree on it. He said the budget could be on the Senate floor by the end of April. Snyder wants the budget approved by May 31, about four to six weeks earlier than normal.

"There was a Budget Committee (meeting) at 2:30 (p.m. Thursday), I get there at 2:25, and they hand me a budget," Gregory said. He said the committee breezed through it and then voted on it. "This is not a way to do business," the state senator said.

Despite the speed with which the budget seems to be moving, Gregory said he didn't have details on a lot of what Snyder has proposed, including issues ranging from how shared services might affect revenue sharing to education cuts to tax credit eliminations.

He said the proposed $470 per-pupil cut to schools is still on the table.

Tomiko Gumbleton, former Ferndale councilwoman and aide to Ferndale's state Rep. Ellen Cogen Lipton (D-27th District), said Republicans are pulling hard for those cuts.

"They are essentially creating a crisis with the school aid fund," she said. Gumbleton said the school aid fund is healthy and that Snyder is proposing taking money from it to balance the general fund.

"There is no reason to cut the school aid fund," she said.

Gumbleton said Lipton's office gets 500 emails a day from people who oppose cuts to the school aid fund and that a campaign has been organized to fight the cuts.

Gregory also touched on Snyder's proposal of eliminating brownfield tax credits, an economic development tool in some of Michigan's older, suburban communities.

"We've been told it will be renamed, but it will stay the same," he said. "They are calling it something else, but I don't have concrete numbers. We just don't know."

Snyder has also proposed cutting statutory revenue sharing. Ferndale received about $1.2 million last year in statutory revenue sharing. Snyder has said the proposal would award communities with more revenue sharing if they display uses of shared services.

"What we're hearing is that this will not help this year's budget," Gregory said. "There will be cuts in revenue sharing, and cities may get some money next year. But we just don't know."

A month from now, Gregory added, he'll know a lot more of the details and how the budget will shake out.

"In a month's time, we will have some pretty good information on what will be cut," he said. "But boy, grab a hold, 'cause it won't be good."