Lawmakers protest lack of session, want open action
from Rep. Paul Opsommer
State Reps. Rick Jones, Paul Opsommer and Brian Calley stood with their Legislature colleagues at a Lansing news conference on Tuesday to protest the summer vacation legislative session calendar while the 2011 state budget hangs in the balance.
After taking the first two weeks of July off, the Michigan House of Representatives is scheduled for session only one day a week through the middle of August.
“House leadership should realize the importance of enacting a budget on time after the public outcry of past years’ failings,” said Jones, R-Grand Ledge. “The people of Michigan can’t afford for the Legislature to wait until the last minute, or even days after the deadline, to set the state’s spending course for the coming year. There’s too much at stake that can’t be fixed with one-time gimmicks or accounting tricks. It’s time to make real changes that will reinvigorate the outlook for our state and its people.”
The Legislature has agreed on the school aid portion of the budget, but there remains a $1.4 billion structural deficit that has been smoothed over in previous years by federal stimulus funds and accounting changes.
“This is finally the year when Michigan government will be forced into the reality that it can’t spend money it doesn’t have,” said Opsommer, R-DeWitt. “Those decisions shouldn’t be made with the clock ticking down in the middle of the night. We have two months before the next fiscal year begins, time that should be used for careful, earnest discussions to develop reforms that will serve the future of Michigan for generations to come.”
Calley said Michigan residents and businesses rightfully expect the Legislature to simply get the budgeting job done on time.
“It boils down to the simple and old-fashioned concept of not putting off tomorrow what you can do today, that people in leadership shouldn’t wait to the last minute to do things,” said Calley, R-Portland. “Michigan families don’t put off important decisions to the last minute, and the Legislature should work in the same common-sense manner.”