Michigan’s Fiscal Year 2022 budget has been signed by Governor Gretchen Whitmer. The fiscal year starts on October 1st.
The budget has a $70 billion bottom line with major expenditures going into childcare affordability initiatives, workforce training, affordable healthcare, environment, and infrastructure.
State Senator Dan Lauwers, a Brockway Township Republican, said that the budget plan deposits $500 million in the state’s rainy-day fund and $150 million in the unemployment trust fund to increase its solvency due to fraudulent benefit payments. He said he was pleased with the budget as presented to the Governor because it was balanced “with minimal federal funding”.
The budget has some line items for St. Clair and Sanilac counties. State Representative Andrew Beeler, a Port Huron Republican, said that the new budget provides funding for Mid-City Nutrition Soup Kitchen, Sanilac County Parks, and a Fort Gratiot campground.
Whitmer, a Democrat, signed the budget but vetoed several provisions that she deemed unconstitutional and seven items that she saw as a threat to abortion rights.
Links to the Senate and House budget bills: SB 82 and HB 4400
Reporting for WGRT – Jennie McClelland
