LANSING – The Michigan House Appropriations Committee approved Thursday the omnibus budget, making no changes from what subcommittees approved for all state departments and agencies, and maintaining penalties for universities, colleges, local governments and school districts entering into contracts before the implementation of the right-to-work law.

HB 4328 , the budget bill that includes all non-education spending, passed 18-10 on a party line vote. Rep. John Olumba (I-Detroit) who was in the meeting for the three hours before House session began, did not return to finish the meeting after session adjourned. No changes were made to the budgets, but Democrats on the subcommittee did offer more than 50 amendments.

The general government budget continues to contain a penalty in the Department of Treasury section for local governments that entered into contracts before March 28, when the right-to-work laws took effect. The penalty would cost certain municipalities a third of its funding from statutory revenue sharing under the Economic Vitality Incentive Program.

Rep. Sam Singh (D-East Lansing) offered an amendment to strike the language, saying the penalties in other school, university and community college related budgets were much less than the penalty toward municipalities.

Rep. Brandon Dillon (D-Grand Rapids) urged Republicans to adopt the amendment so the two parties could work together.

“The Senate is not going to adopt this,” he said. “It’s over. Let’s just stop this and stop punishing local units of government for exercising their rights. The end-zone dance can end, this was done in December.”

However, the amendment was rejected and Rep. Joe Haveman (R-Holland), chair of the subcommittee, said on Wednesday he would like to see the language stay, even though the Senate has not joined the House Republicans in adding penalty language into budgets.

Rep. Fred Durhal (D-Detroit) also shared concerns about a requirement in the Department of Civil Rights budget stating it must notify the Legislature before submitting a federal complaint.

Durhal said it was a result of the complaint issued by the department concerning American Indian mascots for public schools. He expressed similar concerns during the subcommittee meeting passing the budget bill.

The budgets in the bill also do not include Governor Rick Snyder’s plan to expand Medicaid and spend $1.2 billion more on roads. The exclusion of those funds led to cuts in the Department of Community Health and in the Department of Transportation.

In the judiciary budget, the expansion of specialty courts and mental health courts was not included although the chair of the Judiciary Subcommittee, Rep. John Walsh (R-Livonia) said it was something he would like to see worked out before final passage.

Rep. Martin Howrylak (R-Troy) broke party lines and voted yes to Rep. Pam Faris’ (D-Clio) amendments to include funding for the courts.

The bill also did not include the expansion of Healthy Kids Dental in the Department of Community Health budget. Rep. Adam Zemke (D-Ann Arbor) offered an amendment to include funding to expand the program, which would include Washtenaw County in his district.

The amendment was defeated, but Haveman said it hits close to home since it affected his district as well.

The bill also included no change to the Department of Human Services budget, which was reported earlier in the week with major cuts to staff and the closing the state’s only three juvenile facilities.

The Department of Natural Resources budget, although it accepts some new licensing fees, continues to reject a number of new initiatives including 25 new conservation officers, a new aquatic invasive species specialist, a new research vessel, and new wireless broadband communications for state parks. The budget also ends the Summer Youth Initiative Program.

Although all amendments put forth by the Democrats on the committee were rejected, many subcommittee chairs noted they planned on working through the issues and trying to find ways to make some of the amendments work.

Haveman said at the end of the committee meeting that some amendments did show merit.

“I want to say thank you to Democrats for these amendments,” he said. “And for trying to make this budget bill better. We know very well that when you’re dealing with almost $50 billion … this certainly is not a perfect document, but this is a part of the process, and we will move this forward today.”

Overall the bill has $33.9 billion with $7.7 billion from the General Fund.

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