Michigan Republicans formed a near-unanimous opposition to state Democrats' passage of the 2025 budget, citing financial and education -related concerns.
The state's legislature is controlled by Democrats who worked through the night to pass the budget Thursday morning. Only one Republican in the state's two legislative chambers voted for the main state government bill, and none voted for the education budget.
“I imagine Democrats with schools in their districts will keep their phones on Airplane Mode in the months ahead — the outrage from Michiganders is going to be monumental," Michigan House Republican Campaign Committee spokesman Greg Manz told the Washington Examiner.
“Subsidizing pet projects at the expense of school children, teachers, and retired educators might just be the biggest blunder in Michigan political history," Manz said. “Because of [Republican Minority Leader Rep. Matt Hall's] hard work, the Michigan House Republican Campaign Committee will be armed with the resources needed to inform voters how insanely out of touch House Democrats have become.”
The budget is set to freeze the K-12 per-pupil grant for 2025 at this year's level of $9,608, which some education advocates say will result in layoffs.
"This proposed budget would directly lead to layoffs throughout Michigan schools," Robert McCann, executive director of the K-12 Alliance of Michigan, an education advocacy organization, posted on X. "It's critical that lawmakers listen to the educators telling them to rethink this misguided plan."
The stoppage comes after Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's (D-MI) administration officials told schools they would have more money to spend after a cut in what school districts will have to pay to the school employee retirement fund. State Republicans have criticized Democrats for "raiding retirement funds to find more dollars to spend."
"They've created an unsustainable state budget and they want to play shell games to simply tread water," Republican state Sen. Thomas Albert said.
Several other items approved in the budget include $100 million for the Michigan State Housing Development Authority, $65.1 million to increase childcare provider pay rates by 15%, close to $2.1 billion transferred to local road agencies from the Michigan Transportation Fund, and $45.5 million to assist businesses locating or expanding in Michigan, specifically around workforce needs among many other things.
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The new budget allocates about $1.8 billion more than 2024's plan. Nearly $60 billion will support state government agencies, and about $23.4 billion is going toward education.
The plan now moves to Whitmer's desk for her to sign, which she likely will.
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