Previously vetoed spending proposals for COVID-19 response headed back to Gov. Gretchen Whitmer – MLive.com

The Republican-led Michigan Legislature took additional steps Wednesday to send $652 million in proposed COVID-19 response spending previously vetoed by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer back to her desk over objections from most Democratic lawmakers, one of whom described the process as the definition of insanity.

Taken together, Senate Bills 29 and 114 include a $150 million general fund deposit into the Unemployment Insurance Agency fund, $405 million in property tax and fee relief for businesses, about $87 million in funds for non-public schools and $10 million for a summer school grant program.

The funding in question was included in an overall COVID-19 relief package signed by Whitmer last week. She line-item vetoed the proposed measures, citing problems in the bills and a lack of negotiation between the Legislature and her administration on the measures.

Shortly after those vetoes and after an attempt to override them outright the House voted out two different bills containing the same vetoed spending, with Republicans pitching it as a way for her to fix her mistake.

Related: Michigan House tries again on spending vetoed by Whitmer

Republicans in the Senate followed suit Wednesday, approving slightly amended versions of both the school and general fund spending bills in 20-15 votes. The House concurred in the amendments later Wednesday afternoon and the bills are back in the Senate for enrollment before they head to Whitmers desk.

Senate Appropriations Chair Jim Stamas, R-Midland, said on the Senate floor that hes ready for the invitation from the governor to take input from the Legislature on COVID-19 response so they can work through issues more effectively.

But Sen. Curtis Hertel, Jr., D-East Lansing, said Republican efforts to push through bills to make a political point isnt cutting it for Michigan businesses and residents who could use the help. Senate Democrats took a difficult vote against the legislation as a message of protest against the process and are prepared to withhold giving immediate effect to bills that we know dont solve problems, he said.

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result, Hertel said, later adding, I ask, I request, I demand that we get in the room, sit down, negotiate, and solve these problems.

Stamas countered that the definition of insanity is a governor who continues to take on a pandemic without including all branches of the government.

Weve continued to try to govern and be an effective body, yet this body has been shut down with bipartisan legislation over and over and over again, Stamas said.

Wednesdays votes were the latest development in an ongoing dispute between Whitmer and legislative Republicans over how best to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. Those tensions have bled into the process of allocating billions of dollars in federal COVID-19 aid available to the state.

The gulf between the two sides continues to widen amid clashes over the proper extent of executive authority, threats of another legal challenge from the Senate if spending tied to vetoed policy bills is touched and a standstill on negotiations between legislative Republicans and the states budget office.

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Michigan House clears $4.2B COVID-19 spending plan, ties some funds to limits on health departments authority

Michigan Senate approves $1.9 billion for vaccine distribution, direct care worker payments, school aid

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Previously vetoed spending proposals for COVID-19 response headed back to Gov. Gretchen Whitmer - MLive.com