State Rep. Donni Steele on Wednesday highlighted a glaring lack of support for law enforcement in the fiscal year 2025 budget passed by Democrats in the Legislature last week.

“Law enforcement officers across Michigan are facing devastating levels of crime paired with a crippling lack of support,” said Steele, R-Orion Township. “Police officers do everything they can to keep up with criminals, it’s increasingly difficult because they simply don’t have the resources, they need to address this level of crime in our state.”

Republicans have argued for increased law enforcement funding for months, an effort which has been entirely ignored by Democrat leadership. Steele noted that while the budget passed last week includes no additional funding for law enforcement, money was found to add more than 500 new full-time employees to state government and fund other questionable projects, including $7 million for regenerative agriculture and $17 million for zoos in Lansing and metro Detroit.

“When people ask me why I voted no on the budget, I point them right to the misguided prioritization of zoos and drones over the financial support desperately needed by our brave law enforcement officers,” Steele said. “This isn’t a matter of the money not being there. We clearly have the available funds if we can add over 500 full-time employees to state government.”

An original version of the budget included a $5 million grant program to assist local law enforcement agencies with recruitment and additional funding for high-crime community support grants, which were meant to aid communities facing heightened criminal activity. Democrats chose to cut funding for both programs.

While no funding was added for local law enforcement, the budget did include $1.4 million for an additional 13 full-time security officers who will be assigned to the Capitol building.

 “Every law enforcement agency in our state is doing everything they can to find the money to afford additional staff. The shortage of police officers has reached crisis levels,” Steele said. “Instead of supporting those agencies, Democrats are setting aside more than $100,000 per position to add even more personal security for themselves. Democrats have made their priorities crystal clear; they’re more focused on protecting themselves than the communities we represent.”

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