Granholm’s proposed budget cuts put residents at risk

On Wednesday, Gov. Jennifer Granholm announced plans to amend her budget proposal for fiscal year 2010-2011. While the budget will still see a shortfall, it is nothing like what some capitol watchers had been wringing their hands about earlier this year.

Instead, the governor has proposed cuts of about $600 million. Those cuts include a three percent across the board cut for all state agencies, while the Departments of Community Health, Human Services and Corrections would have to carve out an additional $50 million each. She also proposed an undefined restructuring of state debt.

How those $50 million cuts will be determined is still in the air.

“We don’t have anything yet and are looking at ways we can find savings,” said John Cordell, spokesman for the Michigan Department of Corrections. He deferred all other questions to the governor’s office.

A spokesman for the Michigan Department of Community Health deferred all questions to the governor’s office as well.

Granholm’s office offered little insight, deferring instead to state lawmakers to work it all out.

“The cuts are yet to be determined and will get worked out as the budget works its way through the legislature,” Granholm spokesperson Tiffany Brown said.

Meanwhile, Republicans in the legislature cheered the fact that Granholm had proposed only cuts and no revenue increases.

State Rep. Chuck Moss (R-Birmingham), the ranking Republican on the House Appropriations Committee, said in a press release that he was “very encouraged that the Republicans in the Legislature have finally convinced the governor that a tax increase is not the solution to the state’s budget problems.”

“We’ll give fair consideration to every aspect of the governor’s proposal,” Moss said. “Our caucus is committed to getting government spending under control, through spending reductions and government reforms.”

But Sharon Parks, executive director of the Michigan League for Human Services, says that these steep cuts are going to hurt those who can least afford the loss of state services.

While she is worried that cuts to MDCH and MDOC will cause issues, she reserved the majority of her concerns for cuts to the DHS budget. DHS administers the state’s Medicaid program, which now serves a record 1.8 million Michigan residents. And last year, that department was forced by budget cuts to lay off 350 employees at the worst possible time.

“This is a department already in freefall,” Parks said, rattling off instances such as increased case loads, court mandated increases in hiring for child foster care programs and the state’s struggle to match funds for the Temporary Aid for Needy Families federal program.

“We need structural solutions,” Park said. “The legislature has been unwilling to go there.”

Without structural solutions, including possible tax increases, Parks says Michigan residents will lose their safety net, most if which is administered by the DHS and MDCH.