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You are here: Home / Uncategorized / Governor Leans On Lobbyists to Pull Her Fat Out of the Fire with GOP Legislators

Governor Leans On Lobbyists to Pull Her Fat Out of the Fire with GOP Legislators

October 8, 2019 by tbreport 7 Comments

Whitmer’s office to lobbyists: Pressure GOP if you want your vetoed items back

by CHAD LIVENGOOD  
Politics, Policy and Detroit Rising
Crain’s Detroit Business
Oct. 7, 2019

Photo: Larry Peplin for Crain’s Detroit Business

LANSING, MI — Governor Gretchen Whitmer summoned a large group of multi-client lobbyists to a meeting with her aides after her line-item vetoes of an array of budget items.

A few hours after Gov. Gretchen Whitmer ripped the Legislature’s “pork barrel” spending for “lobbyist-pitched programs” during a news conference Tuesday, her senior staff met with Lansing’s lobby corps to enlist their help in fixing the budget the Democratic governor had just dissected.

About 20 private lobbyists representing special interest groups that got their line-item appropriations axed by Whitmer in an unprecedented veto spree were summoned to the governor’s office for a midafternoon powwow with senior gubernatorial aides, according to four lobbyists in attendance.

According to those in the room, the governor’s aides read from prepared talking points and encouraged them to lobby Republicans who control the Legislature to introduce a supplemental budget bill that could be used to restore the 147 line items totaling $947 million that Whitmer wiped out day before.

The lobbyists, who spoke on condition of anonymity, described the strategy as unusual and said the governor’s aides made no commitment to getting funding restored for their clients.

“The governor’s office thinks somehow we’ve got the magic dust to put Republicans at the table and talk about roads,” said one veteran lobbyist who attended the meeting.

This was the general company line several special-interest groups reported getting from the governor’s office last week after Whitmer threw down a gauntlet with the GOP-controlled Legislature: If you can convince Republicans to restart budget negotiations, then there’s a chance you can get your piece of the pie back.

“What’s the guarantee this won’t happen again? And the response was: ‘There isn’t one,'” said Melissa Roy, a Detroit-based public affairs consultant and registered lobbyist. Roy was not present at the meeting of multiclient lobbyists but said she spoke with one of Whitmer’s policy advisers after the $1 million grant she lobbied lawmakers for got axed.

Roy represents the Autism Alliance of Michigan, which since 2014 has received an annual state grant for its autism navigators program, a hotline for adults with autism and families of autistic children who need help navigating government programs, health insurance and public education systems.

The autism program was not in Whitmer’s budget plan introduced in March, but her staff encouraged the Autism Alliance and its board members to lobby for the money “and if the Legislature included it, the administration would come to the table as well,” Roy said.

Despite laying waste to budget items Republicans and their outstate constituents hold dear, there’s no guarantee the GOP is coming back to the table to make amends. Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey and House Speaker Lee Chatfield essentially want Whitmer to publicly apologize for the vetoes and let the governor twist in the wind and defend her cuts.

Whitmer’s decision to torpedo parts of the $60 billion state budget with the nearly $1 billion in line-item vetoes and $625 million of inner-departmental transfers has changed the dynamics of the already fragile relations of Michigan’s politically divided leaders. The governor’s vetoes were broadly designed to inflict pain on Republicans back home and eventually force them back to the negotiating table so the governor can get her non-transportation priorities funded.

But it might take a while.

Payments will cease flowing this month from the Treasury Department to county sheriff’s departments that patrol secondary roads and house low-risk offenders in county jails as well as subsidies for nursing homes, rural hospitals, isolated public schools and medical clinics on Beaver, Drummond and Mackinac islands.

And charter schools won’t get the same $240-per-pupil increase as traditional public schools thanks to another Whitmer veto, causing schools to halt planned pay increases and trim other expenses two months into the school year.

The veteran lobbyists summoned to the governor’s office said the pain of Whitmer’s vetoes may need to be felt outside the confines of the Capitol complex before the governor and legislative leaders restart budget talks.

Meanwhile, groups like the Autism Alliance are trying to figure out a path forward without the state aid they’ve come to rely on.

They are now emblematic of this budget battle as Republicans have framed Whitmer as an unfaithful ally for speaking at the group’s annual gala in April and then gutting one-fourth of its funding with a stroke of a pen in September.

But the Autism Alliance’s lobbyist still can’t believe it has become entangled in a deeper stalemate between Whitmer and the Legislature over road funding, taxation and how big and expansive state government should be.

“At this point, a $1 million Autism Alliance navigator isn’t the biggest leverage in the world,” Roy said. “It’s not a program that belongs or even fits in the negotiating table on these larger budget issues. … It’s just baffling to us as to why we’re here right now. There’s no logic as to why we’re in the position that we’re in.”

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Filed Under: Uncategorized

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. John Stewart says

    October 8, 2019 at 8:30 pm

    Just amazingly inept and convoluted. Thanks to Bill Ballenger for succinctly stating the macro State Budget issues I am very sorry this does not appear headed for a positive result. Thank you again for the Ballengerreport

    Reply
  2. Lisa Haverdink says

    October 8, 2019 at 8:51 pm

    It seems to me that the Autism Alliance should fall under a charity program. It should have a program for fund raising. And may be it does a.ready. But their are so many other afflictions that affect children and I would be interested in how many get funding from state tax dollars.
    Now to veto funding for for policing rural roads, nursing homes, clinics and hospitals in hard to reach areas seems more like a unfounded, mean veto to me.
    Charter schools, I’m on the line with this one. Public schools always worked for many generations of children. I often thought they should be considered private schools to have tuition paid for by the parents.

    Reply
    • Damon Lieurance says

      October 11, 2019 at 11:55 am

      Charter schools are public schools. You don’t pay any tuition.

      Reply
  3. J.Dallas Winegarden says

    October 9, 2019 at 7:44 am

    In typical Conpublican behavior they refuse to compromise with the governor on progressive legislation. They think the public is dumb enough To Belive there moronic suggestion that all of this is the governor’s fault! I guess that’s why you call them con publicans.

    Reply
  4. J.Dallas Winegarden says

    October 9, 2019 at 7:46 am

    In typical GOP behavior they refuse to compromise with the governor on progressive legislation. They think the public is dumb enough To Believe there moronic suggestion that all of this is the governor’s fault! I guess that’s why you call them Know Nothing Air Bags!!!!!

    Reply
  5. Gertie Montecillo was says

    October 9, 2019 at 8:43 am

    I love the newsletter! Please keep it up. We sometimes feel like we don’t know what going on. When we hear something, we don’t know what to believe. After hearing you at our MARSP meeting, we feel we can now keep up with the news.

    Reply
  6. Damon Lieurance says

    October 11, 2019 at 11:50 am

    Nice article from Live good! Very enlightening!

    Reply

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