With two days from a state government shutdown – and quite a ways from any sort of state budget agreement – things are awfully quiet today at the Capitol.
Neither the House or Senate is scheduled for session, although two conferences committees did meet on Sunday to approve budgets, with large cuts to libraries and prisons. They come back on Tuesday.
Why the inaction? Perhaps partly because Michigan Republicans are catching their breath after a three-day conference at Mackinac Island, in which they hashed over a number of issues.
While I have no doubt the conference was important, one wonders whether state Republican leaders could have re-scheduled the conference months ago when it became clear that a budget stalemate was likely due to faltering state revenues.
Clearly, the time spent in Mackinac last weekend could have been better spent working on viable solutions to the state’s budget crisis before Wednesday night's budget deadline. Perhaps next year, Republicans could schedule the conference for sometime in mid-October – when (in theory) Michigan’s budget will be settled and done.
