Legislator: Spending taxpayer dollars deserves thoughtful consideration

Rep. Smit has co-sponsored a measure that would make Michigan’s budget process more transparent, fiscally responsible, and accountable to taxpayers.

The proposed reforms come after the governor signed a record $82 billion budget this summer, with the final proposal revealed to legislators only hours before they were called upon to vote. The final product included about $4 billion for new items added at the last minute.

“As a freshman legislator, I was baffled when we were given just a few hours to review more than a thousand new pages of additions to the budget proposal before being asked to vote on them,” Smit said. “The people in my district who sent me here to vote on their behalf would be incredibly disappointed to know their tax dollars were so callously spent.”

House Bills 5296-7 would require the Legislature to post any spending bill publicly online and distribute it to legislators at least seven full days before the bill advances through a legislative chamber. Amendments to budget bills must be public at least three full days before they’re offered on the House or Senate floor.

The bills would also promote fiscal responsibility by reining in conference committees, which write the final budget at the last minute and work out differences between the House and Senate. Conference committees often add new spending to budget bills that had not previously been proposed in either legislative chamber, but the plan Smit supports would generally prevent them from adding new items or increasing spending on an item more than the House and Senate proposed. Spending bills reported from conference committee would have to be provided to legislators at least two days before a vote.

The transparency plan was referred to the House Committee on Government Operations, however, House Democrats in majority held its last votes on Nov. 9 and will not consider any more legislation until the new year. This is the earliest the Legislature has adjourned in more than half a century. Smit and her Republican colleagues did not support the early adjournment.

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