Today, State Budget Director Chris Harkins presented Governor Gretchen Whitmer’s budget recommendations for the upcoming fiscal year, beginning on October 1, 2022. The budget focuses on five areas: education, infrastructure, workforce and economic development, healthy families, and safe communities. The budget reflects several of the items she called for in the State of the State, including ending the retirement tax, expanding the Earned Income Tax Credit, and funding to expand mental health access throughout Michigan. The budget totals $74 billion and relies on one-time federal funding, and increased revenue which is not expected to continue year-over-year; thus, the budget includes a number of one-time appropriations.

Governor Whitmer is proposing the biggest increase to education spending in twenty years and the highest per-pupil funding ever of $9,135 per kid. The budget includes $1 billion in infrastructure funding to update school buildings, $1.6 billion for retention bonuses to teachers and support staff and $600 million for educator recruitment in order to help alleviate the workforce shortage the state is experiencing. The governor is calling for a 5% ongoing increase, and a 5% one-time increase, to operations funding at the state’s public universities and community colleges.

Other aspects within the executive budget recommendations include:

• • $578 million for roads, bridges, airports, transit, and rail programs
  • $500 million to expand the MI Clean Water Plan grant program
  • $500 million Hero Pay for frontline workers
  • $500 million deposit into the Strategic Outreach and Attraction Reserve Fund
  • $325 million to build a new state psychiatric facility complex
  • $250 million to modernize state parks and trails
  • $150 million for local recreation grants
  • $55 million for MI Safe Communities
  • $52 million deposit into the state’s Rainy-Day Fund
  • $50 million to support $2,500 rebates for electric vehicles
  • $50 million for first responder retention
  • $40 million for the Going Pro Program
  • A 5% one-time and 5% ongoing revenue sharing increase to local governments

These recommendations are another step in the process towards putting together a state budget the legislature and Governor Whitmer can agree to. The House and Senate Appropriations Subcommittees will meet over the upcoming months to work on, and finalize, the budgets within their purview. The goal is to complete the budget by June 30.

For more information, please click here to visit the State Budget Office.

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