Lansing Democrats are growing government with a bloated and unsustainable budget plan that prioritizes wasteful political spending while failing to address some of the biggest concerns of Michigan families. I want you to know why I voted no on this frivolous plan.
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Reckless spending ignores the priorities of Michigan families.

1. The 2023 budget grew at historic levels – from $76 billion last year to $81 billion this year – an increase of $5 billion. Despite this growth, the plan does not include a single dime for working families who are struggling to make ends meet.
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2. The budget failed to prioritize spending for crucial measures like roads and bridges. The transportation budget saw no significant increase, even though their reports detail a $2 to 4 billion increase.
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3. Our local roadways have been neglected for too long. Instead of pouring millions of taxpayer dollars into new government programs, we should be mobilizing a plan to fix the crumbling roads that people take to work, their kids’ schools, or the grocery store every day.
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4. The plan spends nearly all of the state’s record-high $9 billion surplus. It’s a historic opportunity to help people feeling the pressures of inflation, who need better schools and infrastructure, or better access to healthcare. But instead, the plan blows the surplus on far-left social programs and leaves the most important needs for Michigan families underfunded and ignored.
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5. The Democrat plan is loaded with pork projects in big cities located in Democrat districts but includes little funding that benefits Mid-Michigan residents or other rural areas of the state.
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6. Democrats shelled out $125 million for green-energy school buses, $10 million for drones, and $11 million for a task force to address racial disparities in the state’s coronavirus response – even though the pandemic is over. Republicans offered numerous amendments to shift funding from frivolous projects to local road improvements, but Democrats rejected them. Then they doubled down by stripping away $400 million that was reserved for local roads to fund even more special projects.

Their plan lacks transparency.

1. This budget was crafted behind closed doors. The details were kept secret until just hours before I was called to vote on it. I respect the people I represent too much to spend $81.7 billion in hard-earned tax dollars without taking the time to carefully review the details. You sent me to Lansing to represent you, and to do that properly, I have to know what I’m voting on. That’s not possible when I’m given just a few hours to review.
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2. The Democrat Majority only negotiated with the Senate, refusing to deal with House Republican leadership. That’s because, procedurally, Republicans in the Senate have negotiating leverage that House Republicans don’t, with the ability to grant immediate effect on legislation. Without that negotiating power, Democrats didn’t need to involve House Republicans to achieve what they wanted.
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3. This budget went to great lengths to decrease transparency, eliminating reports that require state departments to show how they spend public tax dollars. Reports about the state’s pension debt, the number of state employees working remotely, and more have been eliminated.
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4. It also eliminates an important transparency measure that requires state departments to post severance payouts that exceed six weeks of wages online for the public to see. Allowing sketchy payouts like this to be kept hidden is a serious disservice to the people of Michigan that opens the door to corruption.

It grows bureaucracy, increasing red tape.

1. The Democrat spending plan wastes your tax dollars on several unnecessary programs that will be financially unsustainable in future years. It includes funding for more than 1,000 new bureaucrats — positions that will be difficult to eliminate in future years when we won’t have a huge budget surplus at our disposal.
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2. More unsustainable spending includes $160 million to provide free breakfast and lunch for every public-school student in Michigan – even those from the wealthiest families in the state.
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3. The unprecedented revenue growth our state experienced over the last few years will not last forever. It’s irresponsible to waste it on frivolous programs and bloated government only to make cuts and layoffs down the line.
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4. The unprecedented spending on new programs that aren’t funded in the future opens the door to new state taxes for your family. This is just wrong considering we had a record $9 billion surplus. That surplus could have – and should have – prevented tax increases for years to come.