Funding for the independent redistricting commission approved by voters in 2018 would be handled by the legislature - not the Secretary of State’s office - under a spending plan approved at the committee level Thursday.

In her budget proposal, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer had asked for $4.6 million to cover the constitutional obligation passed in Proposal 2, the redistricting commission ballot initiative backed by Voters Not Politicians, to be put in the Secretary of State’s budget.

The spending plan approved by a House and Senate conference committee Thursday puts that funding, which falls under the umbrella of the state’s general government budget, in the legislative budget instead - and reduces total funding for the commission to $3.4 million.

Funding for the commission was tied in the ballot language to be a certain percentage of the Secretary of State’s budget. The general government spending plan reduces the Secretary of State’s general fund budget to correlate with the proposed decrease in spending for the commission.

Senate Appropriations Chair Jim Stamas, R-Midland, said after consulting with their legal team, legislators felt the legislative budget was the best place for the redistricting commission to be.

“We feel that we’re strictly following what the ballot proposal had indicated we needed to do,” he said.

That opinion wasn’t shared by Voters Not Politicians. In a statement, Nancy Wang, the group’s executive director, said they object to “any attempt to undermine the Commission or the Secretary of State."

“These types of political games are exactly what voters stood firmly against in the last election,” she said in the statement.

Up to this point, the Secretary of State has been using existing funds to promote and prepare for the upcoming application process for the independent redistricting commission. A Secretary of State spokesperson said the department hasn’t fully reviewed the conference report when asked for comment.

Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson previously told reporters the success of the redistricting process “may very well hinge on whether or not the legislature fully funds it at every stage.”

Sen. Jeff Irwin, D-Ann Arbor, said he was “definitely concerned” about the decreased funding for the commission and voted against the plan Thursday.

"It’s really important that this redistricting commission be independent and that it have the resources to do the job that the citizens meant it to do when they overwhelmingly passed the anti-gerrymandering proposal," he said.

Also included in the general government spending plan was the Attorney General’s budget, which ultimately didn’t incorporate a proposed 10 percent administrative cut proposed by the Senate.

The general government budget was moved to the full legislature Thursday along with budgets for several other state spending categories, including infrastructure funding, health and human services, judiciary and corrections.

The plan has to pass the House and Senate and be signed by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer to become law, although Whitmer has the option to line-item veto certain appropriations if she chooses. Legislative leaders say they’re planning to move the rest of the budgets in a group early next week.

House leadership struck a deal on K-12 spending late Wednesday, and both the House and Senate voted out a school aid budget - although some House Democrats and the entire Senate Democratic caucus weren’t on board with the outcome.

Whitmer has not been party to negotiations of late after ending talks with Republicans over whether to incorporate one-time funding for roads into the budget.

On Thursday, the transportation conference committee included a $400 million one-time boost for infrastructure projects, which Democrats slammed as not enough to solve the problem.