Michiganians have some advice for lawmakers hammering out next year's budget.

As the Legislature returns Monday from its two-week vacation to hash out competing budget proposals, A  Detroit News-WXYZ statewide poll finds that Michigan voters want legislators to spare schools and police, but slash their own expenses. The EPIC-MRA poll found most voters also want to preserve funding for Medicaid, roads and job training. Programs or services that voters said should be targeted for cuts are substance abuse programs, retaining state workers, prisons and environmental protection.

Budgets passed by the House line up better with voters' viewpoints than those passed by the Senate or the governor's recommendations, according to Bernie Porn of EPIC-MRA in Lansing. But nobody in Lansing seems to be nailing voters' priorities -- entrenched differences over how to fix Michigan's economy portend budget battles that could stretch into the fall.

The Senate's budget proposal cuts $1.2 billion out of the state's $18.4 billion budget that is expected to be $1.7 billion in the red for the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1. The House proposed cutting less than half of that amount. Once the two chambers come to agreement, federal recovery cash will be used to erase the remainder of the deficit.
The chambers have to agree on the 2009-10 budget before the new fiscal year starts to avert another state government shutdown like the brief closure in 2007 when legislators failed to approve a budget by the September 30 deadline.

Of 600 voters surveyed statewide June 23-25 and June 27-28, 76 percent said Michigan's budget is in a "crisis situation," although 58 percent said budget cuts haven't really affected them yet. Of those who have been affected, 17 percent said they've felt the impact in education costs or cuts.

Source: Detroit News, 7.9.09