LANSING – The Michigan House on Wednesday approved its budget for state agencies with an additional $500,000 to address staffing shortfalls at the Grand Rapids Home for Veterans and the possibility of slight funding increases if a solution is found on auto insurance credits taking up $80 million of the state’s budget.

HB 5294 passed 76-32. In total, the budget is $38.68 billion ($8.3 billion from the General Fund).

The House version of the budget funds various initiatives at slightly lower levels than what Governor Rick Snyder recommended, as the House budget is not assuming the $80 million tax credit currently going to certain auto insurance companies will be repealed for the 2016-17 fiscal year.

The House also voted to provide $112.7 million for Hepatitis C and Cystic Fibrosis treatment compared to the $194.6 million recommended by Snyder.

The specialty drugs reserve fund recommended by the governor received half of what Snyder proposed under the House Appropriations Committee’s budget, coming in at $43 million ($15 million General Fund).

However, House Speaker Kevin Cotter (R-Mount Pleasant) told reporters after session as the process continues some initiatives may increase if the credit is repealed or a solution is found.

“We will look at some of the areas where things were taken away from in the House version of the bill,” he said. “We would probably look at some of those areas on a situation-by-situation basis.”

Multiple amendments were adopted to the bill, with one providing $500,000 to address staffing shortfalls at the Grand Rapids Home for Veterans.

Cotter said the $500,000 may increase later as more information is gathered on what would most helpful for the home.

“It was a number that we put out there and I think we are probably going to find is a little low,” he said.

Democrats unsuccessfully tried to get several amendments adopted to the bill. Rep. Sam Singh (D-East Lansing) offered an amendment that would have prohibited funds to be used to defend the governor in criminal cases related to the Flint water crisis.

“Though the budget made progress on some key issues Democrats have been fighting for, I was disappointed that the majority rejected amendments for additional transparency and continued its practice to balance the state budget on the back of local communities by not funding revenue sharing at the appropriate level,” Singh said in a statement. “I urge the Senate … to put the people of this state first and correct the mistakes of this budget by fixing the glaring holes that will leave hundreds of thousands of people struggling for the services they need.”

Democrats also continued to criticize the Senate’s planned move to the Capitol View building, again offering an amendment to reverse the project.

House Minority Leader Tim Greimel (D-Auburn Hills) spoke in opposition to the budget for its continued support of the privatizing the state’s prisons and the Capitol View building for the Senate offices.

“The state is still allocating through this budget millions of dollars to build posh new office buildings for senators,” he said on the floor. “This is absolutely unexplainable. The fact that legislators are engaging in that kind of self-serving conduct … when they claim that they can’t afford basic funding to essential services is absolutely nonsensical.”

But Appropriations Chair Rep. Al Pscholka (R-Stevensville) said the budget does provide many essential services to residents. He spoke of one constituent who discovered she had breast cancer only because of the forced physical included in the Healthy Michigan program.

“There’s some stuff in this budget I don’t like. And there’s some stuff in this budget that millions of Michiganders do,” he said.

The budget provides the $108.6 million for Healthy Michigan matching funds, but it reduced funding for Healthy Michigan marketing and replaced the $19.5 million Governor Rick Snyder recommended for a Healthy Michigan call center with a $100 placeholder.

Two Republicans voted no on the bill, Rep. Ray Franz of Onekama and Rep. Lana Theis of Brighton. Fifteen Democrats joined the remaining 61 Republicans in supporting the bill.

In the budget for the Department of Attorney General, the House voted to provide $2.6 million for lawsuit settlements related to the Flint water crisis. Another $30 million is also being allocated for issues related to the water crisis.

Other key initiatives include stripping per diem payments to the State Board of Education after the group offered school guidelines for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning students; $150,000 for a veteran’s ombudsman and providing $25.6 million to expand Healthy Kids Dental to all children in the state.

This story was published by Gongwer News Service. To subscribe, click on www.gongwer.com