Partisan divides over federal aid play out in battleground states

That includes Michigan, whose Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has emerged as a target for President Donald Trump and conservatives opposed to continuing shutdowns to slow the spread of coronavirus.

Whitmer, along with her Democratic peers Tom Wolf of Pennsylvania and Tony Evers of Wisconsin, wrote a letter to Trump last month urging him to support additional fiscal relief for states and localities, citing the multi-billion dollar deficits each is contending with. They noted that the National Governors Association, which is chaired by Republican Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, has asked Congress to send another $500 billion to states.

Earlier this month, Whitmer told members of the National Education Association that both Democratic and Republican governors are "united" in pushing Congress to provide more funding.

But Michigan's GOP-controlled legislature is not on board, setting up a potentially bitter budget battle with Whitmer, considered a potential running mate for presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden.

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The leaders of the state Senate and House appropriation committees are calling for Whitmer to issue recommendations for how to address a projected revenue decline of $3.2 billion for this fiscal year and another $3 billion for the next fiscal year, which starts Oct. 1.

"The Trump administration and the federal government have gone out of their way to provide assistance to the states right now," said House Appropriations Committee Chairman Shane Hernandez, a Republican who is running for Congress.

"I'm not going to go to the federal government that's already given us $3.8 billion and ask for more when we haven't put our own list of possibilities of how to meet this shortfall ourselves together," he continued, referencing the sum Michigan is set to receive from all of Congress' relief packages.

He noted that Michigan made decisions that helped put the state in a deeper hole.

"We're one of the states that has a more significant lock down than other states," he said, referencing Whitmer's stay-at-home order, which expires May 28, though some businesses have been allowed to restart.

Instead, like many other Republican officials, Hernandez supports asking Congress for more flexibility in using the $150 billion lawmakers set aside for states and large municipalities in its $2 trillion coronavirus relief bill passed in late March. However, that funding can only be used to pay for pandemic-related expenses, not to plug budget shortfalls.

In Pennsylvania, state Sen. Pat Browne, who chairs the appropriations committee, favors "taking some of the strings off" the existing federal support package as a first step. That would provide the Keystone State with $4 billion and plug much of the estimated budget shortfall of up to $5 billion, avoiding many catastrophic cuts, he said.

If that's not possible, then Browne supports another infusion for state and local governments -- though he noted it wouldn't have to be very large.

"They are starting to count and they are concerned about how big this is. I get that," said Browne, of many US senators' view of the multiple relief packages lawmakers have passed to date.

The GOP-controlled legislature is working with the Wolf administration on the budget for fiscal 2021, which starts July 1. They expect to introduce a budget by early June.

Though Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and other prominent Republicans have not supported the recent $3 trillion House relief bill that would provide $875 billion for state and local governments, other GOP senators are warming up to the idea of more fiscal support or, at least, providing states with more flexibility in using existing funds.

Maine Sen. Susan Collins signed onto a bipartisan bill with two other Republican senators -- Cindy Hyde-Smith of Mississippi and Bill Cassidy of Louisiana -- to inject $500 billion in emergency aid into states, cities and counties.

"If we don't provide additional aid, the consequences are going to be massive layoffs and huge reductions in services," Collins said Wednesday.