LANSING – The House removed language in a supplemental appropriation bill Tuesday that would have allowed the state to accept a $9.8 million federal grant to continue the planning and development of the MIHealth Marketplace in a move that underscored the virulence of opposition among the House GOP to the federal health care law.
It would act as a clearinghouse for insurance plans as part of the state’s health exchange, which is mandated by the federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.
Rep. Chuck Moss (R-Birmingham), chair of the Appropriations Committee, said the idea of the exchange does not sit well with Republican caucus members.
“They think it’s Obamacare. They don’t like it,” Moss said. “They’d rather be caught sacrificing to Satan than voting for Obamacare.”
The supplemental was approved 101-7.
Several other items from the Senate version were removed, including nearly $9 million for graduate medical education, $10 million for hospital uncompensated care payments, $8.5 million for Wayne State psychiatric disproportionate share payments, $2.3 million for payments in lieu of taxes and $1.5 million to help ease the backlog at the Tax Tribunal.
The bulk of the bill dealt with the use tax on Medicaid and that was not changed.
Moss said that the Senate had added to the House bill that originally had been focused on just a few items.
Moss said some of the items the Senate added were worthwhile, but said they needed to be careful about backfilling items they cut from the budget earlier in the year.
“There’s 10 hands reaching for every dollar of that alleged, possible surplus,” he said.
Senate Majority Leader Randy Richardville (R-Monroe) said there is an understanding to work on some of the Senate priorities after the Legislature adjourns for the year Thursday.
“I think what we’re going to do is look at those things that we do agree upon, get it done and then work on those that we don’t over the next couple weeks,” he said. “I was fairly insistent that we not wait until the budget message and the projections for next year, that these are things we can probably deal with over the break.”
When it came back from the Senate, HB 5014 , appropriated $396 million gross ($180 million general fund). The House-passed version dropped that to $351 million gross ($169 million general fund).
Other cuts included $1.5 million for center for independent living, $680,100 for pre-college engineering, $450,000 for the reinstatement of Medicaid chiropractic services, $400,000 for Camp Brighton cleanup, $206,700 for the Asian Pacific American Affairs Commission, $200,000 for welcome center operations, $200,000 for a forest development program, $200,000 for the brain injury treatment project, $53,000 for dues to the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Law, $25,000 for a juvenile justice mental health report, and $25,000 for the donated dental program.
On the floor, Republicans rejected a series of Democratic amendments seeking to increase spending on a variety of projects.
Rep. Fred Durhal Jr. (D-Detroit) offered an amendment to restore $220 million of the city of Detroit’s revenue sharing he said was taken away by the state. The money would be a “critical piece” of the help that is needed to get the city get it out of its immediate cash flow problem and avoid an emergency manager. Detroit Mayor Dave Bing has called for the state to send the money to the city and make good on the 1998 deal in which the city agreed to have its income tax reduced in exchange for freezing its share of revenue sharing for 10 years, the latter of which did not happen.
Durhal said in a statement he was appalled the Republicans would oppose this use of funds.
“We are not asking for extra money. We are not asking to take money away from other programs,” he said. “We are asking that this additional revenue the state has found be used to pay the state’s debt to Detroit, so that Detroit leaders can take care of the city’s finances.”
Rep. Alberta Tinsley-Talabi (D-Detroit) requested $1.5 million to tear down abandon buildings near elementary school buildings, but her amendment was also rejected.
“I believe there is a real threat in every empty and abandoned building,” she said.
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