LANSING, Mich. (WLNS) – The Michigan House of Representatives passed its annual budget on Wednesday, which included the largest investment in education in the state’s history.
According to the Michigan Democratic Party, the budget includes “substantial investments in workforce recruitment and retention, infrastructure and public safety,” as well as road repairs.
“This budget reinvests in the people of Michigan,” said Speaker Joe Tate (D-Detroit) in a press release. “The scale of the challenges we face — from crumbling infrastructure to pandemic learning loss, to high costs for parents and families — demand an aggressive response, and this budget rises to the occasion. I applaud Chair Witwer for her steady leadership in creating a fiscally responsible budget that puts the people of Michigan first.”
Of course, not all lawmakers were happy with the budget.
House Republican Leader Matt Hall (R-Richland Township) called the budget “bloated” in a release, saying:
“House Democrats’ wasteful spending ignores the priorities of the people of Michigan, shoveling taxpayer dollars to unsustainable new programs, pork, and partisan pet projects instead of investing critical resources into education, infrastructure, and local law enforcement,” Hall said.
Republican State Representative Sarah Lightner (R-Jackson) also chastized the budget, saying:
“Instead, Democrat [sic] majority is spending our historic surplus on special projects and other out-of-touch programs that grow state government in a way that simply will not be sustainable in the future. They want to spend millions of dollars purchasing green-energy school buses, upgrading the fleet of vehicles driven by state employees to electric, and incentivizing residents to buy e-bikes. Meanwhile, they underfund local road repairs and completely eliminate funding for the School Safety and Mental Health Commission formed after the Oxford High School shooting,” she said.
The budget is now headed to the Michigan Senate.
