Michigan House of Representatives Throws Stones with State Budget Plan

One of the lessons we’re taught at a young age is not to throw things. We can hit something and break it, hit someone else and hurt them, or even hurt ourselves if it bounces back. This is often a tangible and sometimes painful lesson we learn the hard way as we grow up.

Unfortunately, if you take a close look at the recent budget passed by the Michigan House of Representatives it doesn’t seem like they learned this valuable lesson.

It would be easy to label the House budget proposal as unserious, given that several of the cuts are to federal funds that are generally restricted in use to a single program or a few purposes. Cutting programs using these federal dollars does next to nothing for the state’s financial standing — especially when you remember that federal funds cannot be redirected to other priorities.

Instead, these unused funds simply sit in the state’s bank account or get returned to the federal government for redistribution to other states. Leaving this money on the table hurts Michiganders who rely on these services and wastes valuable resources.

However, the House budget proposal is quite serious — it’s seriously flawed and will cause serious harm. The cuts made under the facade of rooting out “waste, fraud, and abuse” will — just like the harmful federal megabill passed earlier this year — affect both the lives and incomes of millions of Michiganders.

The House, simply put, is throwing stones. This budget will undoubtedly break fundamentally important systems like health care, while also harming communities and the economy, dismantling support for K-12 schools and some of Michigan’s universities, and hurting the Michiganders that lawmakers are supposed to represent.

The House budget proposal doubles down on what policymakers have recklessly done in Washington D.C. with the federal megabill. The budget assumes the possibility of deep cuts to Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) (aka food stamps) and provides no meaningful way to fill those gaps. More Michiganders will get sick, families will go without food, and our hospitals, health providers, and grocery stores will all struggle as a result. In a state where many communities already lack a close grocery store or nearby hospital, these cuts will make those accessibility issues much worse.

Ultimately, this will affect all 10 million Michiganders. People will have to drive longer distances to find healthy fruits and vegetables or a doctor who provides specialized care, will have to wait longer for primary or routine care, and will have to use more of their hard-earned money to meet their daily needs.

The passed budget goes far beyond federal cuts. It reduces funding for Double Up Food Bucks, which incentivizes SNAP beneficiaries to purchase fruits and vegetables at farmer’s markets by matching those dollar-for-dollar up to twenty dollars. Not only does this help families stay healthy, it also supports local farmers. The budget also eliminates specific funding for universal school breakfast and lunch, which has been a huge success in ensuring children have the healthy meals and the full bellies they need to be successful in their classrooms. The House budget instead rolls all of these dollars into a per-pupil payment, leaving it up to schools to decide whether to continue providing this critical nourishment for students.

The budget proposal also cuts funding and staff for various food safety programs. Not only does this make it harder for families to afford groceries, it makes it harder to trust that the food families are eating is safe.

Michigan’s best ranking in the national KIDS COUNT Data Book this year was health; our only ranking where we fall in the top half of states. Our budget should continue to support the health of kids and their families, beyond basic health care coverage. However, the House budget reduces, or completely slashes, support for important maternal and child health services, which worsens birth outcomes and long-term health outcomes for kids. It even reduces or eliminates funding for environmental health programs, like safe drinking water, which are vital for the health of our communities and educational outcomes.

When combined with massive threats to federal Medicaid cuts, this budget takes a significant step backwards in terms of basic health protections.

Policymakers in Washington threw several massive stones when they passed the harmful federal megabill earlier this year. At a time when grocery prices are already sky high and our health care system is already stretched too thin, their decisions will only harm working families. Clearly some of our state lawmakers didn’t learn from what happened in D.C., passing a budget that further disrupts services Michigan families need and deserve. This will ultimately have a significant and long-standing impact on our communities, our economy, our businesses, and all 10 million of our state’s residents.

And it will be a painful lesson to learn.

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Rachel Richards, Fiscal Policy and Government Relations Director — Michigan League for Public Policy