Democrats passed a record $81.7 billion budget late Wednesday night, committing billions in federal funding and a major surplus to make a statement about the priorities of a state government controlled by Democrats for the first time in decades.
“This budget is a statement of our words,” House Speaker Joe Tate, D-Detroit, said. “This budget reflects the priorities of the people. … If we go back home, our constituents will ask us what have you done for us? How have you made our lives better? This budget does that.”
It’s a budget hallmarked by record spending on traditional Democratic priorities, including education, environmental protection and social services alongside additional spending on public safety, infrastructure and economic development.
Republicans throughout the legislature, however, decried the budgetary process, asserting they had been sidelined by Democratic majorities who only allowed them to review the nearly 1,600 pages of legislation on the day it passed.
Sen. Sarah Anthony, D-Lansing, who led budget drafting as appropriations chair in the Senate, characterized it as investments inclusive of the whole state.
“Michiganders, we don’t drive on Republican roads. We don’t go to Democratic elementary schools,” Anthony said. “We are one Michigan and this budget reflects that.”
At the same time, it’s a budget that reflects issues and areas that Democrats have felt were long neglected with Republicans controlling the legislature. The budget includes a litany of individual projects surrounding Detroit, Grand Rapids and Lansing.
“Yes, our large urban cores are mostly Democratic,” said Rep. Angela Witwer, D-Delta Township. “It’s been a very long time since we’ve had a Democratic majority and they have been ignored.”
More than $24.3 billion committed to school funding represents a more than 9% increase from the current year’s budget. Money given to community colleges and universities increased 2.8% and 13.6%, respectively.
Alongside other programs, the state will pilot universal free breakfast and lunch for all primary school students. It allots $160 million for the idea, along with putting $225 million to reimburse public school teachers up to $400 a month to pay off student loans.
Read more: A new Senate proposal to recruit Michigan teachers: pay their student loans
Chair of the Senate Appropriations K-12 Subcommittee, Sen. Darrin Camilleri, D-Brownstown Township, said the school budget was put together with the help of educators, parents and students.
“We went into the field to listen to their stories,” Camilleri said. “This is a budget that truly reflects the values of the people of Michigan and equity was a core component of our budgeting process.”
The department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy also receives a funding increasing of more than 40%, largely through an infusion of federal funding from the 2021 bipartisan infrastructure law.
Whitmer, in February, had proposed about $79 billion in spending, and the versions that passed each chamber in May went above that amount. But in the process of reconciling the House and Senate’s budgets, the total spending ballooned by another $2 billion.
To pass the budget in time, Democrats needed Republican votes in the Senate to bring the budget into effect immediately. Multiple sources told MLive earmarks for Republican districts helped bring on the necessary Senate votes to grant immediate effect to the budget.
Close to $1 billion has been allocated toward one-time funding that will benefit individual projects in legislators’ districts, an approach to negotiations that has drawn significant criticism for its lack of transparency.
Republicans in the minority decried what they saw as a lack of cooperation and transparency from Democrats. Rep. Donni Steele, R-Lake Orion, who is on the House’s budget committee, said outside of a few negotiators, Republicans had been locked out of discussions for more than a month.
“What ends up happening is that they keep on trying to buy off the votes to get immediate effect,” Steele said. “I would think that the Republicans that vote for immediate effect, I would be surprised if they didn’t get something in their district. And I would think some of the Republicans in the House would get what they want as well.”
Rep. Sarah Lightner, R-Springport, was one of the Republican who met with Democrats to finalize the budget.
Lightner said Witwer, the budget committee chair, had “reached out to ask for our input on those areas that are important to my caucus, and you’ll see many of those priorities in these in this bill.”
She praised the investments in education as “one area where this budget shines.” Ultimately five Republicans joined all House Democrats in supporting the main budget, and the general education budget earned the votes of just two.
At least six of 18 Republicans senators joined their 20 Democratic counterparts to support each budget.
In a statement, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer deemed the spending a “make it in Michigan” budget, a new slogan for her economic development agenda.
“The Make it in Michigan budget will build a bright future for our state,” Whitmer said. “It lowers costs on health care, preschool, meals for kids, higher education, housing and workforce training.”
The budget will be enacted after Whitmer signs it.
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