We were informed yesterday that Governor Whitmer is asking for $74.1 billion dollars to spend in Michigan for the fiscal year 2023 starting October 1, 2022.  How out of control has our budgets and spending been in the last few years?  To put Whitmer’s $74.1 billion dollars proposed budget in context let us look all the way back to 2009 when Michigan's budget was only $48 billion.  In just 13 years Michigan’s budget has increased approximately $26.1 billion or 55%.

When and how will these huge increases in spending by Michigan politicians end?

To put this into even better context just 4 years ago Governor Snyder's 2018 state budget totaled $56.5 billion dollars.  That is a 31% increase she wants in just 4 years.

I ask again, when and how will these huge increases in spending by Michigan politicians end?

How about going back a whopping two ago when Michigan’s 2020/2021 budget totaled $62.8 billion dollars.  That would be a whopping 18% increase.

Now let’s look at Michigan's current state budget (2021/2022) which at the time of signing was $70 billion dollars.  $70 billion dollars approved by the Republicans in the state House and Senate.  That was an 11.5% increase from the previous budget. To be fair to the Republicans in the state and House $2.7 billion (4.3%) of those dollars did come from the Democrats in congress via the world's largest slush fund and what I affectionately call “Biden Bucks”.

Now Whitmer wants to increase our budget by an additional $4.1 billion or approximately 6%.  Will the Republicans agree to this increase, last year they gave her more than she asked for in her proposed budget so I would expect they will give her more than she is asking for this year?  When they do they will send out press releases informing us how much they spent then they will eventually go back to claiming that they are fiscally responsible.

To be fair once again some of these funds would be coming from Biden Bucks but how much we still do not know.  In our current budget, Michigan Republicans did increase our budget by 7.2% minus the Biden Bucks and still a record for year over year budgets.

So let’s make this simple here are the budgets I wrote about above:

  • 2009 $48,000,000,000
  • 2018 $56,500,000,000
  • 2021 $62,800,000,000
  • 2022 $70,000,000,000
  • 2023 $74,100,000,000 (proposed)

Former Detroit Chief of Police James Craig and current gubernatorial candidate running in the Republican primary said in a statement yesterday:

"Gov. Gretchen Whitmer wants taxpayers to bail her out from her failed record as governor. She’s pledging taxpayer money to various constituencies hoping they’ll forget or overlook the mismanagement, poor leadership and broken promises that encapsulates her time in office.”

His statement went on to state:

  • Whitmer is promising more money for education, but vetoed reading scholarships that would have benefited students most in need.
  • Whitmer is promising more money to police, hoping to cover up her past support for "the spirit of defunding the police."
  • Whitmer is promising money to fix lead pipes, hoping to cover for her failure to acknowledge the water crisis in Benton Harbor for over three years.
  • Whitmer is promising to support small businesses, hoping to cover up for her failed pandemic policies and lockdowns that closed down businesses all across the state.
  • Whitmer is promising to support the auto industry and EV production, after Ford announced multi-billion dollar EV production facilities out of state.

In his statement the Chief did say he is supportive of rewarding Michigan teachers, ”but the bonus structure should be tied to academic improvement and student growth”.

Courtesy of James Craig Campaign
Courtesy of James Craig Campaign
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Remember when Whitmer promised us she would “fix our damn roads”?  Whitmer has been in office for over 3 years and at this point, you can ask yourself did she actually “fix the damn roads”?

Former Detroit Chief of Police James Craig and Gubernatorial candidate has more to say about Whitmer’s proposed budget and what he will do if he was to be elected Michigan’s next governor.  Craig will be on my radio show today in the 9:00 hour.  If you cannot listen to it live please listen to my podcast of his interview.

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