By John Lindstrom
Publisher
Posted: November 14, 2019 2:15 PM

What to make of a year when we have a budget but don't have a budget at the same time?

Maybe instead we should ask what will the voters make of it in slightly less than a year?

Any corrective resolution to the strange mishmash of the now current 2019-20 budget-non-budget awaits December, with the House deciding to do extra Thanksgiving shopping or another clean of the hunting rifles or celebrate Dear Santa Letter Week this past week.

And political pressure is building on both sides. There are protests to line-item vetoes and transfers made by Governor Gretchen Whitmer. There are complaints that the Legislature wouldn't negotiate, focused on wrong priorities, is trying to subvert the separation of powers.

For every claim and argument one side makes, there is a counter claim or argument. Every time someone blasts Ms. Whitmer for cutting, say, the tuition grants for students at private colleges another person can riposte the Legislature's tiny percentage increase in public university spending means the state's tuition rates will be pushed closer to the stratosphere.

Each side anticipates the other will bear the brunt of the voters' wrath, come November 2020.

Well, okay, maybe. But let this reporter suggest the budget fight will rank down the list of most voter concerns.

In the 2020 election, most voters will be worried or focused on President Donald Trump. Oh, the budget is likely to be an issue, for those voters who will care about it, but looking at 2020 how one reacts to the current budget situation, how much one may care, will be the cherry on the cake of how a voter reacts to Mr. Trump. Support Mr. Trump, that voter likely will blame Ms. Whitmer for any budget issues – again, if the voter even really cares – but, vote against Mr. Trump, why then the Republican-controlled Legislature was the problem.

That is the reality of 2020. But this year's budget-non-budget could have a greater effect on the 2022 election, especially in regard to Ms. Whitmer.

Depending on how the 2020 election goes, Ms. Whitmer will have to deal with a reality beyond her control. If a Democrat is elected president, traditionally the president's party has trouble in the off-election, which means Ms. Whitmer could have problems. She would be the first Democratic governor to stand for re-election with a Democrat in the White House since 1962. Should Mr. Trump get re-elected, she may get the benefit of reaction to him.

But the issue she mainly got elected on in 2018 was fixing the @#%*(^$%@#*#$$%%&%&?/\! roads. A major program to get road and infrastructure repair failed to make it into the current budget-non-budget, so we aren't much closer to a fundamental road fix.

At this stage Ms. Whitmer will need to have a program, a really big program, to fix the roads in place by 2022 (or alternatively some kind of program and really good way to knock the Republicans for not making it bigger) to maintain voter confidence in three years overtake any national effect on her.

The best chance for that big program was this year. So, the 2019-20 budget-non-budget may yet play a big election role. Just keep the popcorn handy for the 2022 show.