Partial Shutdown Ended in Michigan

Partial Shutdown Ended in Michigan
By MONICA DAVEY
Copyright by The New York Times
Published: October 1, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/02/us/02michigan.html?hpw


After months of trying to solve a $2.8 billion state deficit, fatigued and frustrated Michigan lawmakers reached some budget agreements early Thursday, but only after a standoff had shut down the government briefly for a few hours overnight.

The technical shutdown, which most in Michigan slept through, had no practical effect, and state employees returned to work as usual on Thursday, officials in Lansing said. But the impasse over cuts to nearly everything, even as the state’s new budget year was dawning at 12:01 a.m. Thursday, underscored the size of the financial struggle in a state where the economy was all but devastated even before the recession arrived elsewhere.

In the end, lawmakers reached agreements on how to solve much of the deficit, and they gave themselves a one-month deadline extension — keeping government employees working — on the rest. But there were no painless answers, and much of the turmoil fell along partisan lines. Republicans control the state senate, and Democrats control the house and the governor’s office.

Some Republicans have staunchly opposed raising taxes in the face of the state’s high unemployment rate, and the early morning agreements — which are next to be considered by Gov. Jennifer M. Granholm — reflected deep cuts across the board, from revenue sharing with Michigan’s cities to Medicaid payments. Some Democrats, loathe to go along with some of the cuts to education and college scholarships, have indicated they still may consider tax increases on the matters left unresolved. Michigan’s annual state fair, meanwhile, which is the oldest in the country and which had been targeted for cutting, survived, at least for 2010, under the agreements.

While other states experienced surpluses during parts of the last decade, Michigan has faced deficits for at least eight years. Whatever conclusions officials in Lansing ultimately reach on this year’s budget, some in the state say they are still more fearful of Michigan’s budget prospects two years from now. That is when federal stimulus money, which is being used to plug some of the holes this year, is no longer promised.