Appropriation

So get this one.

And then you go to the Senate Appropriations Committee.

The golden rule, he who controls the gold controls the rules, right? Right.

You look at the Appropriations Committee, and on the Republican side, you have no less than seven individuals.

On the Democratic side, you also have seven individuals, including key individuals that are no longer returning.

Dick Durbin, a long-standing senior senator who is retiring.

And then you had three departures on the Veterans Committee from individuals that just retired.

And last but certainly not least on appropriations, a huge committee on the House side.

And later, when I got into the legislature, I was, um...

There was an opening on one of the EGLE Appropriations subcommittees, and so I made a joke, um, my first year.

Because it was halfway through the term, I was appointed late, um, for a variety of reasons.

And so when I started, uh, on the board, I said, "Well, I'm qualified because I'm one of the few legislators that knows how to pronounce four-syllable words with no vowels in between."

Um, and I also think that relationships matter.

So I really value, um, Mack and you and Dina, my own county commissioners, um, because you're informing us, again, of a layer of government that we have a lot of impact on through the state budget.

I'm on Appropriations this term, and so what goes in Lansing has a big impact on locals' governments and what you, what s- essential services you can or can't deliver.

I also remember back to my days of unfunded mandates and how difficult that was to manage.

So, uh, the, the...

Bills go through committees, and the last committee this bill went through was the Senate Appropriations, right? And so the Senate is the opposite house of the house of introduction.

Mm-hmm.

And so the Appropriations Committee decides if, if whatever's in that bill can get paid for by th- by the state, right? Some bills, uh, don't have any costs, right, if, if they're gonna just change a little part of a b- of a law, and other bills ha- would create a program, and there's gonna be fees and costs and whatever.

A- a- and, and so Appropriations, they, uh, determine, uh, if, if the state can afford it.

And so this bill got, got held in Appropriations.

So what that means is the chair of the committee did not put the bill out for a vote from the members of the committee, so it died.

And this year is the second year of a two-year cycle, so it can't come back next year.