Michigan House | Susan J. Demas
The budget bill moved by the Republican-led Michigan House of Representatives on Tuesday would make massive cuts to state departments that oversee health and human services, labor and economic growth, environmental regulation and statewide law enforcement.
A substantial amount of state funding would, instead, go toward fixing roads with a $3.4 billion increase to the Department of Transportation budget over the current fiscal year.
There were also numerous boilerplate items prohibiting money for diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives across state agencies.
Members of the House voted Tuesday to pass a substitute version of House Bill 4706 along party lines. The budget would fund the state’s various departments with $54.63 billion, while $12.09 billion would go to the General Fund.
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The House’s total fiscal year 2025-26 budget proposal comes to $78.5 billion in gross funding when its education budgets are included, which passed months earlier.
By comparison, the Democratic-controlled Senate’s budget that passed in May – excluding community colleges, higher education, the education departments and school aid funding K-12 – is $60.28 billion, with $13.04 billion going to the General Fund. With the education budgets included, the Senate’s budget plan comes to $84.6 billion.
The difference between the two plans is a whopping $6.1 billion.
Among its largest cuts were to the Department of Health and Human Services.
A line item for Medicaid and behavioral health was slashed by $3.79 billion, a 13% decrease over the current year, while the public health line item for the department would be cut by $92.4 million in the House plan, a 7.6% decrease. Additionally, human services in the health department line item would be slashed by $1.07 billion in the House plan, a 14.8% decrease over the current fiscal year.
Republicans’ proposal for the Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity also slashes the agency by $1.13 billion – a 46. 7% cut.
The department would be funded at $1.29 billion in the House budget. Michigan funded the department at $2.42 billion in the current fiscal year.
The governor proposed a considerable cut to the department in her recommendations delivered at the turn of the year, opting to fund the agency at $1.88 billion. The Senate has proposed a cut but with funding more in line with the current year at $2.11 billion.
Other cuts proposed by House Republicans include:
$54 million from the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development;
$28.5 million from the Department of Corrections;
$200 million from the Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy;
$5 million from the Department of Insurance and Financial Services;
$29.2 million from the judiciary budget;
$69.4 million from the Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs;
$53.2 million from the Department of Natural Resources; and
$66.2 million from the Department of State Police.
Total general government spending was cut by $667.2 million. That includes cuts of $38.3 million from the Department of Attorney General; $15 million from the Department of Civil Rights; $69.3 million from the Department of State; another $431.1 million from the Department of Technology, Management and Budget; and $117 million from the Department of Treasury.
Regarding state police, the House budget would also defund 300 full time employee positions from the statewide law enforcement operations.
House GOP builds wall against DEI programs
Across multiple pieces of boilerplate language in the proposed House Republican budget, the majority caucus aims to prohibit any state funding from going to DEI programs.
No specific DEI initiatives within various programs are mentioned in the analysis from the House Fiscal Agency, but the boilerplate language appears in the outlook for agriculture and rural development, the environmental agency, the total general government budget, health and human services, the labor department, the military and veterans affairs agency, state police, and transportation.
The House also removed $218,800 from the General Fund used to pay for a DEI officer within the attorney general’s office, and eliminated the Office of Race, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion within the health department.
In the state police budget, the House deleted boilerplate language that requires training on tolerance, diversity, implicit bias and de-escalation.
House budget wasn’t all cuts and slashing
There were some increases in spending proposed by House Republicans, as evidenced by the influx of money to the Department of Transportation.
House Republicans are proposing to fund the agency at $10.2 billion, a 50.5% increase by $3.43 billion. Boilerplate language for transportation notes that the House’s increase to the state trunkline road and bridge capital program followed Whitmer’s plan to increase spending in that area by $53.6 million.
The House goes a step further, however, keeping Whitmer’s baseline increase but adds $67.9 million from MDOT administrative funding, $366.8 million from the increase in motor fuel tax revenue proposed in House Bill 4183, $126.3 million from the redirection of income tax revenue proposed under House Bill 4187, and $333.6 million for the redirection of debt service.
Another nearly billion-dollar increase would go toward cities and villages by way of Act 51 Michigan Transportation Fund dollars, with the House noting it “recognizes” Whitmer’s proposed increase of $9.8 million in transportation funding, as well as the $204.5 million from the increase in motor fuel tax revenue, a $459.2 million redirection of income tax revenue and $260 million moved from General Fund dollars.
The county component of that would also result in a billion-dollar increase from the same streams under the House proposal.
A new targeted local bridge program would be funded at $100 million under the House plan.
A modest 6.9% increase from the House to the Department of Military and Veteran Affairs would fund the agency at $295 million. The current fiscal year funds the department at $275.9 million. Whitmer proposed an increase at $293 million and the Senate has proposed funding the department at $291.5 million.
Cuts raise eyebrows with various groups
Democrats in both the House and Senate have by and large derided the GOP’s budget plan for the lower chamber.
State Sen. Kevin Hertel (D-St. Clair Shores), chair of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Military, Veterans, and State Police, slammed the cuts to the Michigan State Police budget.
“Funding our police should never be a partisan issue. But House Republicans’ budget makes catastrophic cuts and undermines public safety. I will not play games with the safety of Michigan communities, and I will never balance the budget on the backs of our troopers,” Hertel said.
While criticism from Democrats was a given, various advocacy groups have joined them in their concern for the House’s budget proposal.
Ken Nixon, director of outreach and community partnerships with Safe & Just Michigan, called out cuts to programs that promote public safety.
“The Republican budget proposal guts the very programs that keep our communities safe and help people return home with stability and dignity,” Nixon said in a statement. “Cutting reentry services, prison healthcare, education, and alternatives to incarceration doesn’t make Michigan safer – it sets us back. Real public safety comes from investing in people, reducing barriers to success, and ensuring basic human needs are met. Both parties still have work to do to fully live up to that vision, but this plan takes us in the exact opposite direction.”
Chuck Warpehoski, project director of Michigan Collaborative to End Mass Incarceration, said the House cuts to prison staffing come at a time when prisons are already dangerously overcrowded and understaffed.
“There is a safe way to cut prison costs, increase safety, and address overcrowding: stop Michigan’s over-reliance on excessive prison sentences,” Warpehoski said in a statement. “Keeping someone incarcerated after they have rehabilitated and served a meaningful prison sentence only wastes taxpayer dollars that could be better spent on crime prevention and victims services. The legislature can start this process by funding the bipartisan sentencing commission.”
The Michigan Works! Association also expressed strong concern over the House budget’s cuts to workforce development funding and the elimination of what it called “two of Michigan’s most effective talent programs: the Going PRO Talent Fund and Registered Apprenticeships.”
“These are draconian cuts that would severely undermine Michigan’s workforce development system at a time when employers and jobseekers alike are depending on it most,” Ryan Hundt, CEO of the Michigan Works! Association, said in a statement. “Apprenticeships and the Going PRO Talent Fund are proven, effective tools for building a stronger economy, and Michigan cannot afford to lose them.”
The association particularly questioned the move given President Donald Trump’s recent executive order calling for one million additional additional apprenticeships nationwide.
“Every Michigander deserves a pathway to prosperity, and every employer deserves access to a skilled workforce,” Hundt said. “We will be vocal in our advocacy to ensure decision-makers understand the vital role these programs play for Michigan residents and businesses.”
Education leaders also continued to ring the alarm bell on the House’s previously passed K-12 budget, calling the Republican budget a $2 billion loss for K-12 schools and urging the House to go back to the drafting table.
“Adequate funding is the foundation that sets Michigan students up for long term success. It’s how we deliver a K-12 education system that provides smaller class sizes, mental health supports, wraparound services, and other resources we know creates an education environment where students can reach their full potential,” Peter Spadafore, executive director of the Michigan Alliance for Student Opportunity, said in a statement. “Unfortunately, the House budgets do none of those things.”
Spadafore and others noted that the House education budget diverts $1.47 billion in School Aid Fund dollars to Higher Education, while also cutting $598 million in School Aid Fund dollars used to offset retirement costs. That would result in increased payroll obligations in school districts across the state.
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