Senator Hood, under his constitutional right of protest (Art. 4, Sec. 18), protested against the passage of Senate Bill
No. 178 and moved that the statement he made during the discussion of the bill be printed as his reasons for voting “no.”
The motion prevailed.
Senator Hood’s statement is as follows:
As I spoke on General Orders, I oppose this budget because of the $200 million that is being taken from school aid
and being put into this budget. I think that the school aid money needs to stay in the school aid budget. I think just
because there are extra monies there, we shouldn’t be taking the money. We should be investing in students there.
Also regarding cuts to universities by about 15 percent, as was noted, my concern is that cut of 15 percent is passed
through tuition to the students, as testified in the Higher Education Subcommittee. The question was asked to some of
the universities was if this decrease in the funding potentially could be passed on to the students via tuition, and they
indicated it is a good possibility that could happen. My concern is could that happen and prevent some of our students
from reaching a higher education and reaching those points where they can be the educated workforce, so when these
jobs come to the state of Michigan, we will have the educated workforce to be there.
That is my objection, and I will be voting “no” on this budget.