Democrats negotiate largest budget in state history amid surplus
Michigan lawmakers now have a budget in their hands.
upnorthlive.com
by Rachel Louise Just | Sinclair Broadcast Group
Wed, June 28th 2023, 7:32 PM EDT
House Bill 4437 lays out funding for the state of Michigan, excluding education. The total Michigan Fiscal Year 2024 budget is $78.8 billion, the largest in state history. (Rachel Louise Just/WWMT)
Michigan lawmakers now have a budget in their hands. After months of planning, proposing, and negotiating, legislators have delivered the largest budget in state history.
Lawmakers have described budgets as a list of their values, and for the first time in four decades, Democrats have gotten near-total control of the funding for their values, as they hold the governor's office and a majority in the House and Senate.
The roughly 1,100-page budget, according to a House spokesperson, was approved by conference committees on Wednesday afternoon.
The total budget ended up at about $78.8 billion, around the same size as the one Gov. Gretchen Whitmer laid out in February. It includes $21.5 billion for education, an increase of over 8% from the last fiscal year, according to Sen. Darrin Camilleri.
The education budget fully funds free school breakfasts and lunches for K-12 students and increases per-pupil funding.
"As we look at ways to attract the best teachers that was certainly on the top of our minds," said Camilleri, D-Trenton, referring to the state's historically low education scores compared with other states. "We're also talking about programs that we know are going to make a big difference, so the learning loss program - MI kids back on track as the governor calls it - we did spend money there. We have some additional money for mental health supports, as well as student safety."
Camilleri, Senate education chair, said we'd start to see some of the impacts of the funding within a year.
Democrats are also using a state surplus to invest in programs they say will be able to be sustained long-term, even when the state has less money to work with.
Republicans have taken to social media to say they were unable to view any of the budget documents in the weeks of negotiation leading up to the final product.
Democrats said the main values they pushed through on the budget have been outlined in previous versions passed by the House and Senate.
The budget is not yet across the finish line. Lawmakers still have to approve it on the Senate and House floors on Wednesday.
To read the FY24 general omnibus budget, which includes funding for everything but education, click here.
its no longer a swing state
