Under Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's proposed budget, spending per student would double. | Pixabay
Under Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's proposed budget, spending per student would double. | Pixabay
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer drew up an ambitious $67 billion budget proposal for fiscal year 2022, hoping to aid in the state’s recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Whitmer states that the proposal will “keep Michigan on the road to recovery,” though it is likely to receive opposition from the Republican-majority state legislatures. Within the plan, direct care workers would receive higher pay, frontline workers would receive expanded college tuition programs, and bridges and infrastructure would receive some needed attention. The budget would also provide more funds for K-12 schools to combat learning losses that resulted from remote learning during the past year.
“I’m confident that we can come out of this crisis stronger than ever before,” Whitmer said, according to Bridge Michigan.
Rep. Thomas Albert
| Michigan House Republicans
Though the budget proposal is the largest in Michigan’s history, it is supported by the larger federal stimulus, which has cushioned the financial obstacles that were initially projected earlier in the pandemic.
This budget is the third proposal drafted for the 2022 fiscal year by Whitmer, who will likely face several months of negotiation with the Legislature until the budget's Oct. 1 deadline.
One dissenter of the proposal is House Appropriations Chair Rep. Thomas Albert (R-Lowell), who told Bridge Michigan that the budget “does not do enough to get kids back into classrooms for in-person instruction.” Albert has used his authority to stall federal funding as an attempt to force Whitmer to repeal state authority for school closures.
Albert further voiced his disagreement with Whitmer’s proposal. “We must remember that state tax revenues are declining sharply; our finances are propped up by artificial and temporary federal COVID relief,” he said, according to Bridge Michigan.
Currently, Whitmer has encouraged all schools to return to in-person instruction by March, but if schools choose not to do so by that time, they will not face any penalty or lose access to funding.
Michigan residents can view the Executive Budget 2022-23 on the Michigan.gov website.
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