LANSING – As Senate Appropriations Committee Republicans prepare to put together budgets, they are looking at cutting Gov. Jennifer Granholm’s 2005-06 general fund budget recommendation by some $350 million.
And while the initial plan in developing its budget proposals is to attempt building the budget without use of any of Granholm’s revenue increases, sources said that if the Republicans cannot find all the cuts needed to get to that $350 million figure then they will look at some of the tax and fee proposals the chief executive has recommended.
So far, one source said, committee members have been able to come up with about half that $350 million total.
The effort is delaying some of the subcommittees from reporting their budgets as they had originally planned. For example, Sen. Cameron Brown (R-Sturgis) announced at a State Police and Military and Veterans Affairs Subcommittee that while his original intention was to report the budgets on Wednesday, they would now be reported on May 4. However, the General Government Subcommittee did put out its proposed budget Wednesday.
Sources who talked on background said the figure came from the latest discussions Appropriations Republicans had with Senate Majority Leader Ken Sikkema (R-Wyoming). It was also described as a reality-check for members, one source said.
Since Republicans want to restore some programs that had cuts proposed by Granholm, and they did not want to use her revenue enhancements, the figure developed was to show the committee members what they had to cut to keep the general fund budget balanced.
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