Fearing the possibility for budget negotiations to drag on past the Oct. 1 deadline, the Senate approved a temporary budget Friday which would maintain state spending at the 2009 level until Oct. 31.
The move would avoid a state government shutdown if the Michigan House of Representatives and the Senate do not agree on a budget by midnight Sept. 30. It also leaves the future of controversial budget issues such as the Michigan Promise Scholarship and revenue sharing in question.
“The thought is, if the budget doesn’t get passed, we need to keep the government going, the services,” said state Sen. Ron Jelinek, R-Three Oaks, who introduced the continuation bill. “We can meet every minute, every hour, but that doesn’t guarantee anything.”
The Senate voted 21-16 along party lines in favor of the bill.
The vote came one day before the GOP is set to host its strategy conference Saturday on Mackinac Island. Jelinek said the continuation was not planned around the conference but on a required five day layover before the House of Representatives can vote on the bill.
“We had to send it to the House, we couldn’t wait until the last day,” he said.
The House must decide before Wednesday whether to approve the budget extension.
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