LANSING — When lawmakers approved the 2027 state budget July 3, it was only a few hours after they released thousands of pages of budget documents that were kept under wraps until not long before the sun rose that morning.
Then they left the Capitol for the July 4 holiday.
So it’s no wonder journalists and other budget watchers were still combing through the budget on July 7.
Here are five items that might have been missed.
Size of the budget
House Speaker Matt Hall complained at a news conference July 7 that he was not getting enough credit for reducing the size of the state budget, amid criticism that gimmicks such as contingency funds and underestimates of anticipated federal revenue were used to try to make the recently passed state budget for 2027 appear smaller than it actually is.
Hall said that for apples-to-apples comparisons, budget watchers should compare spending of state funds from year to year. Federal funds, he said, are monies the state has no control over and the numbers incorporated into state budgets are only estimates.
But looking only at the two main state funds — the general fund and the School Aid Fund — and ignoring spending of federal funds, does not support Hall’s contention that the 2027 budget is smaller than the state budget passed in 2026.
The 2027 budget proposes spending $14.1 billion from the general fund and $20.6 billion from the School Aid Fund, for a total of $34.7 billion.
As initially signed into law, the 2026 budget totaled only $33.8 billion in GF/SAF spending, with $14.1 billion coming from the general fund and $19.1 billion from the School Aid Fund. Even after adding another $475.7 million in general funding spending that was spread over two 2026 supplemental spending bills passed by the Legislature, and subtracting for a small negative 2026 supplemental approved July 3 for school spending, the total for 2026 was $34.1 billion — about $600 million less than the budget passed July 3.
A spokesman for Hall had no immediate comment July 7 on the year-to-year comparisons of general fund and School Aid Fund spending.
Transit gets a boost
The 2025 road funding agreement reached between Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and state lawmakers is providing more money for roads, but also more money for mass transit.
The budget includes:
A $589,100 increase from the Michigan Department of Transportation’s Comprehensive Transportation Fund to implement public transportation elements of the road funding deal;
A $33.4 million increase for local bus operating assistance;
A $41.9 million funding increase for non-urban transit;
A $676,000 increase in funding for intercity bus services; and
A $43.5 million increase for a new intermodal capital line items that includes transit capital and marine passenger services.
EGLE takes big cut
Though the 2027 budget isn’t necessarily much smaller, it does include cuts.
Hall on July 7 pointed to the Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy, which took a 30.6% cut, to $671.4 million for 2027 from $967.7 million this year.
Most of the cut — $270 million — is accounted for by a reduction in funding for low-interest loans for local sewage and stormwater treatment facilities and drinking water infrastructure projects that was available under the Biden-era Infrastructure Investments and Jobs Act.
MSP gets a trim
The Michigan State Police budget was also trimmed, but by a much smaller amount.
The MSP will have just under $948 million to spend in 2027, which is down 1.7% from $964. 2 million this year.
In a win for Hall, who accuses the Whitmer administration of routinely over-budgeting for state agencies and requesting funds for employee positions that won’t be filled, the budget cuts $19.2 million and 100 full-time equivalent (FTE) positions from MSP post operations. That’s partly to bring 2027 authorizations more in line with actual spending in past years, as Hall has requested.
The budget also projects savings of about $1.5 million from the closure of MSP forensic labs in Northville and Grayling.
What didn’t get in
Many of the items included in the 2027 budget are the product of compromises among Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, the Republican-controlled House, and the Democratic-controlled Senate.
But compromises can also be found in what got left on the conference-room floor.
Republicans pushed for boilerplate language that would have prohibited providing grants or programming to non-citizens, unless they were “qualified aliens.” They also wanted budget language that would prohibit use of state funds for diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives or programs.
None of that language made it to the budget version passed by both chambers.
The Senate wanted language that would require the Legislature’s sergeants to submit reports after providing security to a lawmaker outside the Capitol complex, with details of the services provided, and for reports about such security services to be periodically made public.
That never made it in the budget, either.
Contact Paul Egan: 517-372-8660 or pegan@freepress.com.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan’s 2027 budget: what you missed, what wasn’t included
Reporting by Paul Egan, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Paul Egan, Detroit Free Press | USA TODAY Network
