LANSING, Mich. – As the clock ticks, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and the Michigan Legislature appear ready to agree on spending federal money sent to the state as part of the COVID recovery efforts.
If they don’t come to an agreement, billions of dollars would be sent back to Washington, D.C.
In May, Whitmer and the Legislature agreed to work together and we’re now seeing the fruit of that labor. Using supplemental budgets, just under $7 billion was moved through the capitol Wednesday.
The Senate proposed using $4.3 billion on COVID Child Recovery services, largely for K-12 schools.
The House’s supplemental budget covers just over $2 billion on things like child education recovery, food assistance and eviction assistance.
Whitmer and both sides of the aisle are happy the supplemental budgets passed Tuesday.
It’s just the beginning. A full budget is supposed to be ready by July, but it won’t be this year due to COVID. Whitmer and Legislature still have their own (and often opposite) funding priorities.
“I think that’s really good news for our state and good news that we’re going to start deploying these federal resources that we have and we have had for months,” Whitmer said. “We’re finally getting to a point where we can get those deployed and for the issues they were intended.”
Thursday, the House will take up the Senate’s bill and vice-versa. The bills had passed almost unanimously, so they are expected to be on Whitmer’s desk by next week.
More: Michigan News