LANSING, Mich. — In the early-morning hours of Friday, before the sun rose on Michigan, lawmakers were putting the finishing touches on a record setting state budget for the 2023 fiscal year.
Because of a deadline imposed in 2019, they had until July 1 to get it done and they did – around 4 o’clock in the morning.
The spending plan, worth about $75 billion, is the largest ever passed by the Michigan legislature. It also includes the largest per-pupil funding amount ever agreed to in a budget at $9,150 per Michigan student.
Education was a major cornerstone of the FY2023 plan. It also includes $1.92 billion for special education resources, $575 million for teacher training and retention and $52 million to help kids make up for learning loss during the pandemic, including tutoring and online coursework outside of school hours.
The Michigan Education Association was happy to see the massive investment in students.
“The per pupil increase is extremely important, it’s the bread and butter of what funds our schools,” said MEA spokesman Thomas Morgan. “There are a lot of kids across the state who need some extra help to get caught up and they deserve our help; they deserve a chance just like any other child.”
In the wake of the tragic school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, the Michigan budget also includes $693 million for improvements to school safety. By and large, discretion over how to use that funding will be up to individual districts around the state.
“Some schools may need to use the funds in order to create a more secure entryway, they can do that,” said Rep. Bryan Posthumus, (R) – Kent County. “Some schools may want to use the funds for better secure locking mechanisms in the case of an active shooter, they can use it for that.”
“There’s nothing, absolutely nothing, that is more important than keeping our kids safe. Nothing comes even close,” said Morgan. “But it can’t be the only thing. We also need to make sure that we have the mental health resources available for every student who needs help.”
The budget also takes steps to address that. It injects $625 million into state mental health resources and $130 million into public safety and community policing resources.
But absent from the budget is a plan to use up $6 billion Michigan has in surplus – leftovers from federal pandemic relief during the worst days of COVID-19. Legislators had to do something with the money or risk losing it. Many suspected the funding would come back to Michiganders in the form of tax credits or direct relief checks, but no decision was made in the budget passed Friday.
“So we have $6 billion just on the balance sheet, ready to be appropriated later,” said Rep. Posthumus. “We put three different tax cuts and tax breaks on the governor’s desk, in order to give some of this money back to the people, and the governor vetoed all three attempts.”
The money could also be used as a rainy-day fund for any potential economic downturns or recessions in the future.
Rep. Posthumus added that this budget plan pays off $2.65 billion of the state’s debt, more than any other budget has reduced it by in the state’s history. Posthumus, while excited by the prospects the plan offers, believes it’s too high and blames frivolous spending in Washington.
“We should not be spending the amount of money that we are spending,” he said. “We need to sending people to Congress in D.C. that are fiscally responsible.”
The budget also included around $1 billion in pork barrel spending – money for projects in local districts. The funding includes $30 million for the riverfront amphitheater project in Grand Rapids, millions for upgrades to the Grand Rapids Public Museum, and $7 million for rapid restoration in the Grand River.
