Conflicting messages on state budget negotiations

After a marathon negotiating session on Thursday, conflicting messages emerged from the meetings — and that’s just from one person, Senate Majority Leader Mike Bishop. Bishop told the Detroit Free Press that he was “encouraged” by the negotiations, which he termed “productive.” Then he challenged House Democrats to come up with a plan to balance the budget while simultaneously ruling out any increase in revenue:

Bishop complained that while House Democrats have privately discussed tax increases, they have not proposed specific plans. He added, “They don’t have the votes in the Senate for a tax increase, and I don’t think they have the votes in the House.”

Bishop has held fast to a position that the budget can be balanced with spending cuts alone. The Senate, with solely Republican support, approved a budget that left many aghast at the scope of spending cuts, which would especially hit schools, cities and social services such as Medicaid.

As Tim Skubick indicated on the Declaring Independence radio show a few weeks ago, this is only what Bishop is saying publicly. Privately, he knows that there is no way that the budget deficit, projected to be nearly $3 billion, can be eliminated without more tax revenue.

But if the Senate Republicans unite in opposition to any tax increases at all, even to niche taxes rather than a general increase, that will almost certainly trigger a government shutdown on October 1. And that would be a huge gamble for either party going into an election year, especially with next year’s budget problems likely to be even worse due to the lack of federal stimulus money with which to help balance the budget.