LANSING – Senate Majority Leader Mike Bishop clarified comments he made earlier this morning to a Detroit radio station about the state of budget talks, saying he and House Speaker Andy Dillon have not agreed on a budget plan.

However, Bishop (R-Rochester) said he and Dillon (D-Redford Twp.) have agreed to ask the House and Senate Appropriations subcommittee chairs to use the levels of spending in the Senate-passed budgets, which reduce spending by $1.2 billion, as targets in negotiations about how each department’s budget will look.

“There is no agreement on a budget right now,” Bishop told reporters. “We have an agreement on process and that is to get these conference committees moving and get some forward momentum on our ultimate goal. … All we’ve done is told our subcommittee chairs that they need to go out and negotiate using the cuts that we’ve put on the table.”

Further, Bishop said: “What we did agree upon was to get this off dead neutral and move it forward by charging our subcommittee chairs with the responsibility of starting the committee process, talking about the cuts that we have, using those as the target to see if we have an agreement. If we have an agreement, we’re going to move these budgets.”

Saying there is no agreement unless the House acts, Bishop said, “There’s a difference between an agreement on how we start the process and what the ultimate agreement will be.”

And Bishop cautioned of the meetings between House and Senate subcommittee chairs, “We don’t know if those discussions, those meetings are going to be fruitful.”

Earlier, on WWJ-AM, Bishop said that he and Dillon had agreed to move forward with a 2009-10 fiscal year budget based on cuts.

Bishop told Detroit station WWJ-AM radio that he expects sometime after the budget is completed the House will consider tax increases to pay for the restoration of some spending. But Bishop said that, so far, Dillon has not indicated what types of new revenue the House might seek. The Senate would consider any revenue proposals passed by the House although Bishop reiterated that there are no votes currently in the Senate Republican caucus to support a tax increase.

Bishop also said that he and Dillon agreed if they are unable to complete a budget before October 1 that they would pass a continuation budget to buy officials more time to craft a plan.

Asked if the two leaders had cut Gov. Jennifer Granholm out of the process, Bishop demurred, saying he and Dillon were simply seeking to fulfill the Legislature’s obligation to put a balanced budget on the governor’s desk.

Abby Rubley, spokesperson for House Speaker Andy Dillon (D-Redford Twp.), said “If you’re inferring an agreement as been reached we’re not there yet. Budget talks are productive and ongoing.”

Speaking to reporters after initial media reports on his comments to WWJ, Bishop said he did not want “misinformation” to compromise negotiations.

This story was provided by Gongwer News Service. To subscribe, click on Gongwer.Com

a>>