Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
Welcome back to Michigan's Big Show starring Michael Patrick Shields.
Joining us now on the program is the founder and
author of the Ballinger Report, none other than Bill Bahlinger himself.
Good morning, Bill, Thanks for joining us on the program.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Good morning, Kyle.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
I saw your Ballinger Report this morning. How bad is
Michigan's fiscal year twenty twenty six state budget? And the
answer is.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
Not bad at all? Yeah, as it turns out now
as I was, the product, the product is not bad.
The process was terrible. Everybody agrees with that.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
Isn't that weird that we've got a budget that's actually
pretty agreeable across the board, But it had to take
until the middle of the night, a brief shutdown, a
lot of constant continuation budget to get there.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
Yeah, it is. I mean it has happened before, but rarely.
I mean everybody talks about back in two thousand and seven,
two thousand and nine, you know, shutdowns, kyleer a little
like snowflakes. They're all the same and yet they're all different.
I mean, seriously, there were differences between what happened in
(01:28):
seven and nine and this year. But you know, the consternation, frustration,
hair On fire worries of local official school officials because
they just had no idea for three months. I mean,
this should have happened really back on July first, until
(01:51):
you know, it became the official start of the fiscal
year on October first. And you know, back in two
two thousand and seven and nine, they had an excuse,
and that was we'd had recessions in both those years,
the second one much more pronounced than the first, and
(02:13):
there was a big fiscal shortfall I mean over a
billion dollars they had to make up. They had to
figure out where do we get the revenue to make
this budget balance. This year, there was no such crisis,
no fiscal crisis really except the one self induced crisis,
and that was trying to come up with a so
(02:35):
called fix the damn Roads deal, which the governor wanted
and the House Republicans wanted. Well, when you start trying
to find upwards of three billion dollars that isn't evident
anywhere in the revenue stream, that's going to create problems,
just like back in seven and nine, even though it
(02:57):
was for a very different reason. I think that is
really the reason we went right up to October first,
because of the roads deal. I think if there had
been no proposed roads deal and they'd gone up doctor versus,
it really would have been inexcusable for them to wait
this long.
Speaker 1 (03:14):
We're talking with Bill Ballenger from the Balunder Report. They
do get some credit though, for creating a system where
everything that your tax at the gas pump for state
taxes goes the roads, and that's something they've been talking
about for at least ten years, and at least mechanically
they got that done.
Speaker 2 (03:35):
Yeah. I mean, that was something that probably should have
happened years ago, and it could have happened in happier
times when there was more revenue to play around with,
but they didn't do it, and they waited until this
year to do it. But of course, the big issue
there is if you're going to take all the taxes
(03:55):
at the gas pump and give them to the roads,
then the money that came from the sales tax on
gas as part of the gas tax at the pump,
that had previously gone to schools and other forms of
government what had to be made up by taking money
from somewhere else in the budget, or you had to
(04:17):
raise taxes, which nobody wanted to do so when it
got right down to it. Until this year, they didn't
want to touch the sales tax on gas at the
pump that was going to things other than roads. Now
they've done it, and yes, to the common citizen man
in the street, it makes a hell of a lot
of sense. You pay a gas tax at the pump,
(04:39):
it's going to go to fix the roads you drive
your car on.
Speaker 1 (04:42):
You know, it's interesting I asked last week at Murr's
News about whether we actually had a state government shut down,
because between midnight and four oh seven am on Wednesday,
October one state government operated without a budget, even though
the governor didn't actually call for anything to be shut down.
So it's kind of like if the fell, if the
(05:04):
tree fell in the woods and nobody was there to
hear it, did it really make a sound. It's kind
of one of those arguments, isn't it.
Speaker 2 (05:11):
It is one of those arguments, And you're right, practically speaking,
nobody's really going to feel any pain from this brief shutdown.
But let's intellectually think about this. If the shutdown so
called after midnight with no state revenue had lasted not
(05:32):
just two hours or four hours, but a week or
a month or six months or a year. Would we
be able to just blithely skate along for that period
of time without any state revenue and say, well, the
governor hasn't called for a shutdown, so it's not shut down.
(05:52):
Are you kidding? No way. I mean, the governor cannot
just unilaterally decree there is no shutdown when in fact
there is no revenue. The constitution says no money can
be spent for any purpose in the new fiscal year
unless revenue is provided for it, and it had not
(06:13):
been provided. What they should have done months ago is
they should have passed what is it called a continuation budget,
which would kick in automatically on October first and continue
funding on into the future at the level of the
previous fiscal year, the twenty twenty four to twenty five
(06:35):
fiscal year. But they didn't do that. They were in denial.
They thought, you know what, we're going to get this done.
We're going to make it by October first. Well they
didn't quite, But practically speaking, you're right, for a couple
of hours in the middle of the night, we were
in technically shut down territory. But who the heck is
(06:56):
going to feel it or know the difference or talk
about it for years to home. None.
Speaker 1 (07:01):
Well, apparently the reason that we went to that brief
two four hour shutdown was because of a disagreement over
the transparency over earmarks. So this is the pork that
legislators throwing the budget to assist their own districts, whether
it's a new firehouse, or it's fixing a road that
(07:21):
m DOT hasn't gotten around to, or what have you.
The house it was insistent that these projects be put
in some kind of public space online so people could
view them before the budgets passed, and the Senate wanted
to wait until after the budgets passed so you can
see what's in it. Finally the Senate came around and said, okay,
we'll kind of release all this information beforehand. But there
(07:45):
was a bit of kicking and screaming to it. But
it raises the question is this budget transparent? Was this
budget process transparent? Because even though the earmark process was
a little more transparent, I would argue that the US
itself in general has become less.
Speaker 2 (08:02):
So you hit the nail on the head. What's your
definition of transparent? I mean, if it's you make the
ear mark process more transparent, and I think the House
Republicans are right to demand that it be before rather
than after. That's one definition of transparency, the one that
I think we'd usually talk about. When you talk about
(08:26):
the other kind of transparency, you're talking about the opaque,
hard to view process of passing the budget itself that
we went through over these last few weeks and months,
and for that matter, beyond October first into this past week.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
It was not exactly a transparent process. I will tell
you that, and I'll agree with you on that. Bill
Ballinger from the Ballenger Report. You're listening to Michigan's Big
Show starring Michael Patrick Shields.
Speaker 3 (09:00):
Have you ever wondered why health insurance costs seem to
keep going up? I was doing some research online and
I stumbled upon some surprising information on Blue Cross Blue
Shield of Michigan's websitemibluedaily dot com slash affordability. I was
surprised to learn that the cost Blue Cross pays for
prescription drugs rose by a staggering fifteen percent last year.
(09:21):
Fifteen percent. That's five times higher than inflation. It's no
wonder healthcare costs or a concern for so many of us.
That's why Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan is working
hard to help all of us better understand the factors
driving up healthcare costs and sharing what they are doing
is a business to address it. Because Blue Cross knows
that healthcare is personal, it needs to work for everyone,
(09:41):
and affordability matters. So I encourage you to take a
minute and check OUTMI blue Daily dot com slash affordability
and get informed. You'll be glad you did. It's eye
opening information that can help everyone better understand the complexities
of the healthcare system and its impact on your health
insurance costs. Michael Patrick Shields here. As you all know,
(10:03):
I have Fuzzy math and I'm at Dusty Cellar for
my October six for sixty six dollars wine club. And
there's a surprise. It's seven for sixty six dollars Matt Rhodes.
Speaker 4 (10:14):
As a thank you to all our Loyer Wind Club
members and anyone who'd like to join, we're offering a
seventh bonus bottle with the club packs.
Speaker 3 (10:20):
Who do I get to choose the seventh bottle.
Speaker 4 (10:22):
We'll have a number of options for you to choose,
from being red, white or a sparkling wine.
Speaker 3 (10:27):
I'm in for that. The club is still the same,
no cost to join, no commitments, and discounts on all
the beer and wine purchases.
Speaker 4 (10:34):
That's right, all the same benefits. Just as you mentioned.
Speaker 3 (10:37):
As long as I'm here, I think I'm going to
get a gift card for a client. How can those
be used at Dusty's Matt nice.
Speaker 4 (10:43):
Thing the water gift cards, they can redeemed here in
the cellar for any retail purchase and also with the
tap room your local neighborhood club.
Speaker 3 (10:49):
Seven for sixty six in October. For the wine club,
it's Dusty Cellar on Grand River and Okamus online too
at Dustysellar dot com.
Speaker 4 (10:57):
Cheers, Michael Patrick
Welcome back to Michigan's Big Show starring Michael Patrick Shields.
Joining us now on the program is the founder and
author of the Ballinger Report, none other than Bill Bahlinger himself.
Good morning, Bill, Thanks for joining us on the program.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Good morning, Kyle.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
I saw your Ballinger Report this morning. How bad is
Michigan's fiscal year twenty twenty six state budget? And the
answer is.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
Not bad at all? Yeah, as it turns out now
as I was, the product, the product is not bad.
The process was terrible. Everybody agrees with that.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
Isn't that weird that we've got a budget that's actually
pretty agreeable across the board, But it had to take
until the middle of the night, a brief shutdown, a
lot of constant continuation budget to get there.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
Yeah, it is. I mean it has happened before, but rarely.
I mean everybody talks about back in two thousand and seven,
two thousand and nine, you know, shutdowns, kyleer a little
like snowflakes. They're all the same and yet they're all different.
I mean, seriously, there were differences between what happened in
(01:28):
seven and nine and this year. But you know, the consternation, frustration,
hair On fire worries of local official school officials because
they just had no idea for three months. I mean,
this should have happened really back on July first, until
(01:51):
you know, it became the official start of the fiscal
year on October first. And you know, back in two
two thousand and seven and nine, they had an excuse,
and that was we'd had recessions in both those years,
the second one much more pronounced than the first, and
(02:13):
there was a big fiscal shortfall I mean over a
billion dollars they had to make up. They had to
figure out where do we get the revenue to make
this budget balance. This year, there was no such crisis,
no fiscal crisis really except the one self induced crisis,
and that was trying to come up with a so
(02:35):
called fix the damn Roads deal, which the governor wanted
and the House Republicans wanted. Well, when you start trying
to find upwards of three billion dollars that isn't evident
anywhere in the revenue stream, that's going to create problems,
just like back in seven and nine, even though it
(02:57):
was for a very different reason. I think that is
really the reason we went right up to October first,
because of the roads deal. I think if there had
been no proposed roads deal and they'd gone up doctor versus,
it really would have been inexcusable for them to wait
this long.
Speaker 1 (03:14):
We're talking with Bill Ballenger from the Balunder Report. They
do get some credit though, for creating a system where
everything that your tax at the gas pump for state
taxes goes the roads, and that's something they've been talking
about for at least ten years, and at least mechanically
they got that done.
Speaker 2 (03:35):
Yeah. I mean, that was something that probably should have
happened years ago, and it could have happened in happier
times when there was more revenue to play around with,
but they didn't do it, and they waited until this
year to do it. But of course, the big issue
there is if you're going to take all the taxes
(03:55):
at the gas pump and give them to the roads,
then the money that came from the sales tax on
gas as part of the gas tax at the pump,
that had previously gone to schools and other forms of
government what had to be made up by taking money
from somewhere else in the budget, or you had to
(04:17):
raise taxes, which nobody wanted to do so when it
got right down to it. Until this year, they didn't
want to touch the sales tax on gas at the
pump that was going to things other than roads. Now
they've done it, and yes, to the common citizen man
in the street, it makes a hell of a lot
of sense. You pay a gas tax at the pump,
(04:39):
it's going to go to fix the roads you drive
your car on.
Speaker 1 (04:42):
You know, it's interesting I asked last week at Murr's
News about whether we actually had a state government shut down,
because between midnight and four oh seven am on Wednesday,
October one state government operated without a budget, even though
the governor didn't actually call for anything to be shut down.
So it's kind of like if the fell, if the
(05:04):
tree fell in the woods and nobody was there to
hear it, did it really make a sound. It's kind
of one of those arguments, isn't it.
Speaker 2 (05:11):
It is one of those arguments, And you're right, practically speaking,
nobody's really going to feel any pain from this brief shutdown.
But let's intellectually think about this. If the shutdown so
called after midnight with no state revenue had lasted not
(05:32):
just two hours or four hours, but a week or
a month or six months or a year. Would we
be able to just blithely skate along for that period
of time without any state revenue and say, well, the
governor hasn't called for a shutdown, so it's not shut down.
(05:52):
Are you kidding? No way. I mean, the governor cannot
just unilaterally decree there is no shutdown when in fact
there is no revenue. The constitution says no money can
be spent for any purpose in the new fiscal year
unless revenue is provided for it, and it had not
(06:13):
been provided. What they should have done months ago is
they should have passed what is it called a continuation budget,
which would kick in automatically on October first and continue
funding on into the future at the level of the
previous fiscal year, the twenty twenty four to twenty five
(06:35):
fiscal year. But they didn't do that. They were in denial.
They thought, you know what, we're going to get this done.
We're going to make it by October first. Well they
didn't quite, But practically speaking, you're right, for a couple
of hours in the middle of the night, we were
in technically shut down territory. But who the heck is
(06:56):
going to feel it or know the difference or talk
about it for years to home. None.
Speaker 1 (07:01):
Well, apparently the reason that we went to that brief
two four hour shutdown was because of a disagreement over
the transparency over earmarks. So this is the pork that
legislators throwing the budget to assist their own districts, whether
it's a new firehouse, or it's fixing a road that
(07:21):
m DOT hasn't gotten around to, or what have you.
The house it was insistent that these projects be put
in some kind of public space online so people could
view them before the budgets passed, and the Senate wanted
to wait until after the budgets passed so you can
see what's in it. Finally the Senate came around and said, okay,
we'll kind of release all this information beforehand. But there
(07:45):
was a bit of kicking and screaming to it. But
it raises the question is this budget transparent? Was this
budget process transparent? Because even though the earmark process was
a little more transparent, I would argue that the US
itself in general has become less.
Speaker 2 (08:02):
So you hit the nail on the head. What's your
definition of transparent? I mean, if it's you make the
ear mark process more transparent, and I think the House
Republicans are right to demand that it be before rather
than after. That's one definition of transparency, the one that
I think we'd usually talk about. When you talk about
(08:26):
the other kind of transparency, you're talking about the opaque,
hard to view process of passing the budget itself that
we went through over these last few weeks and months,
and for that matter, beyond October first into this past week.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
It was not exactly a transparent process. I will tell
you that, and I'll agree with you on that. Bill
Ballinger from the Ballenger Report. You're listening to Michigan's Big
Show starring Michael Patrick Shields.
Speaker 3 (09:00):
Have you ever wondered why health insurance costs seem to
keep going up? I was doing some research online and
I stumbled upon some surprising information on Blue Cross Blue
Shield of Michigan's websitemibluedaily dot com slash affordability. I was
surprised to learn that the cost Blue Cross pays for
prescription drugs rose by a staggering fifteen percent last year.
(09:21):
Fifteen percent. That's five times higher than inflation. It's no
wonder healthcare costs or a concern for so many of us.
That's why Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan is working
hard to help all of us better understand the factors
driving up healthcare costs and sharing what they are doing
is a business to address it. Because Blue Cross knows
that healthcare is personal, it needs to work for everyone,
(09:41):
and affordability matters. So I encourage you to take a
minute and check OUTMI blue Daily dot com slash affordability
and get informed. You'll be glad you did. It's eye
opening information that can help everyone better understand the complexities
of the healthcare system and its impact on your health
insurance costs. Michael Patrick Shields here. As you all know,
(10:03):
I have Fuzzy math and I'm at Dusty Cellar for
my October six for sixty six dollars wine club. And
there's a surprise. It's seven for sixty six dollars Matt Rhodes.
Speaker 4 (10:14):
As a thank you to all our Loyer Wind Club
members and anyone who'd like to join, we're offering a
seventh bonus bottle with the club packs.
Speaker 3 (10:20):
Who do I get to choose the seventh bottle.
Speaker 4 (10:22):
We'll have a number of options for you to choose,
from being red, white or a sparkling wine.
Speaker 3 (10:27):
I'm in for that. The club is still the same,
no cost to join, no commitments, and discounts on all
the beer and wine purchases.
Speaker 4 (10:34):
That's right, all the same benefits. Just as you mentioned.
Speaker 3 (10:37):
As long as I'm here, I think I'm going to
get a gift card for a client. How can those
be used at Dusty's Matt nice.
Speaker 4 (10:43):
Thing the water gift cards, they can redeemed here in
the cellar for any retail purchase and also with the
tap room your local neighborhood club.
Speaker 3 (10:49):
Seven for sixty six in October. For the wine club,
it's Dusty Cellar on Grand River and Okamus online too
at Dustysellar dot com.
Speaker 4 (10:57):
Cheers, Michael Patrick
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