Mich. House adjourns until 4 p.m.

The Michigan House of Representatives have gone “on ease” until 4 p.m., which means essentially that they have adjourned. No new business will be considered until at least that time. Very little progress has been made so far on budget bills in the House.

Sources tell Michigan Messenger that there is a good deal of contention behind the scenes and that the leadership is concerned about bringing a couple of the more controversial bills, like the bills involving local revenue sharing and K-12 funding, to the floor for a vote because they don’t think the votes are there to pass them. We’ve also been told that the legislature may be working well past midnight tonight.

The Lansing State Journal reports that a conference committee has passed a bill that includes an 11 percent cut in revenue sharing for local communities. Those dollars are used to fund police and fire protection, among other things. That’s a slightly smaller cut than the Senate had originally passed, but it remains to be seen whether the House, which is controlled by Democrats, will vote for it at all without at least attempting to pass a revenue increase to restore those cuts.

MIRS is also apparently reporting that there are deals that have been reached in conference committees for the Department of Human Services and Department of Community Health budgets. The MDCH budget bill includes $160 million in cuts, down from the $235 million in cuts approved by the Senate. Once officially passed by the conference committees, those bills will go to the floors of both chambers for a vote as well.