AG Says She's Having 'Meeting After Meeting' To Talk About MI Government Shutdown

(Source: MIRS.news, Published 07/11/2025) (ANN ARBOR) – The Attorney General says all of her division heads right now are having "meeting after meeting" discussing a government shutdown if a state budget isn't ready in time for the next fiscal year, which begins in 82 days. 

"It's expensive to have to plan for a government shutdown. It's time-intensive. It takes resources and it's time that we could be spending actually helping people," said Attorney General Dana Nessel Friday in Ann Arbor. "I mean, there's so many other things we can be doing that are better uses of our time." 

the word shutdown on an american flag

Nessel spoke with nine Washtenaw County community members Friday, specifically those working in reproductive and transgender health care, alongside Rep. Carrie Rheingans (D-Ann Arbor). The event took place in the Scio Township Hall in Ann Arbor, and concluded with concerns surrounding state budget-making.

Starting in 2021, legislators have followed a July 1 deadline to present final budget plans to the Governor. However, the statute does not come with any penalties, and lawmakers earlier this month left for the Fourth of July holiday without a final K-12 spending bill for Fiscal Year (FY) 2026 being drafted. 

House Republicans in early March adopted a temporary emergency budget that would keep the government functioning, giving legislators and the Governor more time to negotiate a final FY '26 spending plan. The continuation budget had a $20 billion value, but Democratic leaders criticized it for giving schools $5 billion less than what they received last year, making it more difficult for them to invest in long-term hires and classroom re-structuring. 

Opponents to the plan illustrate how 92 percent of appropriations made last summer would be wiped out, building up more uncertainty and unpredictability around what departments, schools and state grant beneficiaries should expect their long-term budgets to look like. 

Rheingans previously did public health work for the Center for Health and Research Transformation within the University of Michigan, facilitating local nonprofit hospitals to assess community health needs. 

She said her former public health colleagues are having similar meetings to discuss government shutdown planning. 

"It's a waste of time for them to have to make these plans when they could be trying to figure out how to backfill costs being cut from vaccines or grants being stopped to help reach people in the community," Rheingans said. "We don't do these jobs to fly back and forth at the whims of politicians who can't do their jobs, so my former colleagues are very frustrated with the lack of negotiating skills and leadership qualities of (House Speaker Matt Hall (R-Richland Township))."