The Michigan Senate handed a complete state spending plan over to the state House today.
That leaves just a couple more steps before the budget bills go to Governor Rick Snyder for his approval.
The arguments on both sides of the aisle in the Legislature have been cyclical in recent weeks; Republicans have offered up departmental spending plans with deep cuts, and Democrats have said the cuts help businesses and hurt working poor families and children.
When talking about the K-12 schools budget, Democratic Senate Minority Leader Gretchen Whitmer said:
"Amidst a long day of voting on bad budgets, we find ourselves looking at the absolute worst of the worst."
The K-12 schools budget makes additional cuts in per-pupil funding with the possibility of offsetting those cuts by consolidating services and by encouraging other Republican-proposed “best practices.”
Overall the complaints of Democrats have had little impact on the budget process. The party lacks enough votes to get in the way of a budget that has thus-far rolled quickly through the Republican-controlled Legislature.
It appears any debate on this budget will be over by early next week.
