Michigan Votes Forum

Introduced in the Senate on February 22, 2011, the Senate version of the Fiscal Year (FY) 2011-2012 General Government budget, which funds a number of state departments. This would appropriate $3.355 billion in gross spending, compared to $3.321 billion the previous year. Of this, $674.5 million will come from the general fund, $1.734 billion from "restricted funds," or earmarked tax and fee revenue, and $273.0 million from the federal government. $958.9 million of this budget is paid out in revenue sharing to local governments, compared to $1.05 billion million the previous year, but $200 million of this is contingent on individual local governments adopting more transparency, service consolidation, employee pension reforms and increased employee health benefit cost-sharing

The vote was 24 in favor, 14 opposed and 0 not voting

(Senate Roll Call 99 at Senate Journal 0)

Click here to view bill details.

Senators Johnson, Whitmer, Hunter, Bieda, Anderson, Hood and Gregory, under their constitutional right of protest 

(Art. 4, Sec. 18), protested against the passage of Senate Bill No. 177.

Senator Johnson moved that the statement he made during the discussion of the bill be printed as his reasons for voting 

“no.”

The motion prevailed.

Senator Johnson’s statement, in which Senators Whitmer, Hunter, Bieda, Anderson, Hood and Gregory concurred, is 

as follows:

I rise today to express my strong opposition to the General Government budget before us. The troubling aspects of this 

budget are almost too many to list. This budget does not look to me like shared sacrifice. It looks like heavy-handed, 

draconian cuts to everything that makes our communities good places to live. This budget violates a sacred trust with the 

voters by requiring the privatization of the State Lottery, a program that provides a substantial amount of money to the 

state’s School Aid Fund. And, Mr. President, while I’d argue that it provides a substantial amount of money that is 

dedicated to our schools, we all know this budget and the plan already violates that trust by raiding the School Aid Fund 

for other purposes. 

I cannot support cutting a third of state revenue sharing to our cities, villages, and townships, which will result in devastating cuts to police and fire protection services, closing down libraries and parks, and paring back EMS services as well. 

Sacrificing our quality of life makes Michigan a less attractive place to do business. While the tax break we provide may 

be nice, who would open a business in a city that has no one to answer calls to 9-1-1? While there is some merit to consolidation of services, this approach does not work for all communities, and this budget fails to fully incentivize these efforts.

Michigan’s growing film industry has already begun to grow timid by proposals to cap the film credit, but the $10 million 

cap in this budget will surely scare away anyone who was still interested in filming here and creating jobs. This budget 

is so flawed it does not even support full funding for the Governor’s attraction of business and economic gardening plan. 

If job No. 1 is jobs, then we need to fully fund the MEDC.

This budget is another example of cutting our feet from underneath us as we work to rebuild this state. We all know that 

times are tough, and we are all prepared to chip in if it truly means shared sacrifice. But we are not willing to raise taxes 

on our working families, slash education, reduce our quality of life, and diminish public safety to pay for a $2 billion tax 

cut for businesses.

I am going to be voting “no” on this budget, Mr. President, and I urge my colleagues who are truly concerned about 

job creation and protecting citizens to do exactly the same.