Whitmer’s $84B plan for Michigan schools, housing and more: What to know

• Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer unveils $84 billion spending plan for the next fiscal year, which begins in October
• Proposal will kick off months of negotiations between Whitmer and lawmakers, including new Republican leadership in House
• While the budget proposes increased spending on housing, education and job training, absent from the plan is long-term road funding efforts

LANSING —  Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer on Wednesday proposed an $83.5 billion budget her administration said would help make the state more affordable for families and help students, seniors, the environment and more. 

The second-term Democrat’s spending proposal for next fiscal year is $1 billion larger than the $82.5 billion budget she signed last year and is a massive 44% jump from the $57 billion budget signed in 2017, without adjusting for inflation. 

The executive budget recommendation provides a detailed view of what the governor wants to see in the upcoming budget and is a starting point in negotiations with the Legislature, where Republicans who retook control of the state House have signalled plans to fight large new spending initiatives. 

But the “number one focus of this budget is lowering costs,” State Budget Director Jen Flood told lawmakers, citing continued support for free preschool, school meals, college scholarships and more.

As part of her budget proposal, Whitmer is also calling for a new “vape tax” on non-tobacco nicotine products and reforms to the earmark process, which lawmakers have used in recent years to fund billions of dollars worth of pet projects in their districts. 

About 42% of the governor’s budget plan is built on federal funding, including some allocations that could be at risk under a spending freeze ordered last week by President Donald Trump but paused by courts. 

"The budget today that we're presenting is based on what's in current law, what should there be changes, we're going to have to work together on what the next steps look like," Flood said. 

Related:

• Gretchen Whitmer pitches earmark transparency. See who added $600M in ‘pork’
• Whitmer pitches education ‘transparency’ plan as Michigan test scores lag
• Fact check: Gretchen Whitmer has made big promises. Here’s how she’s done

Officials in January revised tax revenue expectations, predicting Whitmer and lawmakers will have $1.7 million in extra money when crafting the budget — less than the multi-billion dollar surpluses of the last two years which led to sprees in earmarked spending. 

“It's easy to get caught up in numbers and spreadsheets, but to me, the budget is about people,” Flood said. “When I approach this important work, I think about what these investments will mean to residents across the state.”

Were lawmakers to approve the plan as written, the state would have about $11 million left in the state’s general fund and $18 million in Michigan’s school aid fund, which Flood said represented a “return to normal” from the large budgets enacted by the administration across the last few years.

Republicans, however, said it's time to cut spending. 

“Michigan’s next budget must roll back the size of government and overspending," Senate Minority Leader Aric Nesbitt, R-Porter Township, said in a statement, adding he would like to "reduce the tax burden on hardworking Michiganders who need more of their own money to feed their families and heat their homes."

Education spending would go up

Whitmer is proposing 4% funding bumps for K-12 schools, community colleges and universities Among other things, her plan includes:

• $516 million more for K-12 school operations, raising the per-pupil foundation allowance by $392 to $10,000. But Whitmer wants to fund cyber schools at a lower rate, an idea lawmakers have rejected in the past
• $150 million more for student mental health and school safety, for a total of $303 million. Republican lawmakers and some school groups complained about funding levels last year. 
• $200 million to continue a free, universal breakfast and lunch program for students
• $70 million in additional funding for university operations
• $14.6 million in additional funding for community college operations

Whitmer’s budget additionally calls for $960,900 in literacy supports to aid students with dyslexia and train teachers to better address those children’s needs. 

There’s another $145 million for new or expanded career technical education programs, and another $19 million to expand registered apprenticeships, helping an estimated 1,710 apprentices and 130 employers.

The state would pay for more lead line replacements

Continuing efforts to keep lead out of Michigan’s water supply is again a focus of Whitmer’s $1.2 billion budget recommendation for the Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy.

The administration is specifically calling for:

• $80 million in funding for local communities to apply for grants and low interest loans to replace lead service lines, install stormwater management systems or upgrade water infrastructure
• $39 million for increased permit efficiency, which would go toward digitizing and indexing department records to create a public database
• $12.8 million in sustained funding for the regulation and permitting of hazardous waste management, waterways, water use and discharge, as well as natural gas storage
• $7 million to establish a statewide data base of septic systems, with the intent of protecting Michigan’s lakes and streams

Whitmer wants to hike landfill trash fees — again

Whitmer is again proposing to increase state tipping fees — a charge levied on waste disposed in landfills — from 36 cents per ton of trash to $5.

The administration says it’s an effort to curb trash imports by bringing Michigan fees in line with neighbors, citing estimates that 25% of all Michigan waste comes from out-of-state, straining landfill capacities and increasing the chance of pollution. The state is also home to more than 24,000 contaminated sites, which the budget office maintains could be worsened if Michigan continues to take in out-of-state trash.

Whitmer proposed a similar tipping fee hike last year, but lawmakers did not include it in the final budget they sent her. 

The higher fee would generate an estimated $80 million in annual revenue that would be spent on environmental remediation, according to the State Budget Office, as well as brownfield redevelopment, local waste management assistance and grants. 

Plan includes $1M for Oxford shooting review 

Parents of students killed during the 2021 Oxford High School mass shooting have called for an investigation into what went wrong for years now, but have had little success in motivating local officials to act.

But under Whitmer’s budget proposal, the state would send $1 million in one-time funding to Attorney General Dana Nessel’s office for a “review of the handling of the events" following the shooting.

Nessel has long maintained she has not received the cooperation from local officials necessary to begin an outside inquiry, but she said in January that her department is planning to move forward on a probe. 

To date, no investigation has been conducted into the shooting that included review of key school and law enforcement officials. The parents of shooting victims have maintained calls for a more exhaustive probe. 

“It's not a matter of if the school shooting happens again, but when,” Steve St. Juliana, father of one of the students killed in 2021, Hana St. Juliana, said last year in an investigation plea from the Oxford community.

More money for electric vehicle chargers

The state is also pushing for an expansion of Michigan’s electric vehicle infrastructure, calling for $10 million in grant funding to install charging stations in local communities.

Whitmer has previously set a goal to install 100,000 publicly accessible electric vehicle chargers in Michigan by 2030. As of Jan. 21, there were just 3,781 statewide, and state efforts to expand the network have relied primarily on federal cash.

On the electric vehicle charger front, Michigan has so far spent just $2.2 million of the $110 million the federal government earmarked for the state from the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure program through 2026. 

More Medicaid

Whitmer’s budget also calls for just over $96 million in spending to expand Medicaid eligibility for "medically needy" residents, including seniors, by doing away with certain asset limits. 

Medicaid currently requires elderly and disabled beneficiaries who earn more than 100% of the federal poverty limit to spend the majority of their income on health care costs each month in order to access Medicaid.

Under Whitmer’s proposal, those beneficiaries could qualify once their spending puts them back at 100% — $15,650 for a single person or $20,440 for a couple — which the administration says would “help keep more seniors in their homes and prevent individuals from spending down into poverty.”

Employer assisted housing

Building on a $10 million program Whitmer introduced last week at the Northern Michigan Policy Conference, the administration is also calling for another $25 million deposit into an Employer Assisted Housing Fund that aims to increase housing stock with the help of state-based businesses.

The funding would help employers to support a range of housing projects for their employees and others, including housing acquisition, rental housing, down payment assistance, and rehabilitation, targeting households earning under 120% of the area median income.

“If we want people to move to communities for work, they need affordable places to call home,” Whitmer said in announcing the program Friday. “The Employer-Assisted Housing Fund tackles this challenge head on.”

The fund will be overseen by the Michigan State Housing Development Authority (MSHDA), which will distribute the funds to eligible employers investing in local housing for workers, be that through land donation or ground lease, down payment assistance or outright real estate development.

Roads… coming soon

Notably absent from Wednesday’s budget presentation was a new long-term road funding proposal, which Whitmer is reportedly preparing to unveil as soon as next week. 

House Appropriations Chair Rep. Ann Bollin, R-Brighton, questioned the omission in a budget that proposes $1 billion in additional spending, but Flood said the administration remains interested in working with lawmakers.

“We had really productive conversations late last year on what a comprehensive, bipartisan plan could look like, and we look forward to continuing those in the weeks and months ahead,” Flood said.

She noted the budget proposal includes $112 million one-time spending that would allow the state to maximize federal matching funds for highways. The plan also includes: 

in one-time funding that Whitmer’s proposal calls for, which would go toward fully matching federal highway aid. Additional proposed spending includes: 

• $98.8 million in additional money for state and local roads, highways, and bridges, including $71.3 million from federal funding and $27.5 million from the state. 
• $7.8M to explore road funding options in the form of a study and pilot of a possible road usage charge and corresponding revenue options. Lawmakers included similar funding last year for Michigan to pursue a federal grant it did not secure. 

— Bridge reporter Simon Schuster contributed