LANSING — A budget approved Tuesday, Aug. 26 by the Republican-controlled House would cut spending across state government, including cuts to the Michigan State Police and payments to local governments.
When combined with K-12 and higher education budgets passed earlier, the House budget for the 2026 fiscal year would total nearly $79 billion. That’s more than $4 billion lower than the budget Gov. Gretchen Whitmer proposed in February and more than $5 billion lower than the budget passed by the Democratic-controlled Senate in May.
Major changes are expected to the GOP spending plan before a budget is finalized for the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1. Between now and then, Whitmer and the two legislative chambers must agree on a single budget plan. That typically is the result of closed-door negotiations between the governor and legislative leaders.
A GOP spending plan passed by the state House on Tuesday, Aug. 26, 2025 would cut billions from spending plans proposed by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and Senate Democrats.
House Republicans said savings from the cuts in their budget will result in an extra $3.4 billion a year to fix up local roads, without raising taxes. But opposition to specific cuts baked into the budget plan emerged quickly.
A significant chunk of savings identified through the House would come from elimination of what House Speaker Matt Hall referred to as “ghost employees” across state government agencies. In earlier reporting, the Detroit Free Press has identified how unfilled positions result in state government having thousands fewer employees than the number of “full-time equivalent” positions authorized in state budgets. But the House budget would also include actual reductions in the size of the state workforce, not just bringing funding into closer alignment with the actual number of state employees who have been hired and are working.
Significant cuts or other changes included in the House budget plan include:
A net cut of more than $105 million from Whitmer’s proposal for the Michigan State Police, which a House Fiscal Agency analysis said would equate to about 433 fewer full-time positions. The cuts include a $40 million reduction to MSP post operations around the state, $34 million in identified savings from moving the Michigan Commission on Law Enforcement Standards, which has responsibility for training police officers, to the Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs, and a $12.1 million reduction from eliminating the MSP’s Professional Development Bureau, which oversees training and professional development. State Rep. Mike Mueller, R-Linden, said the cuts partly reflect Republican unhappiness with MSP leadership under Col. James Grady.
A $40 million cut in state revenue sharing to cities, villages and townships and a $34.9 million cut to state revenue sharing to counties. Stephan Currie, executive director of the Michigan Association of Counties, said in a news release it is “robbing Peter to pay Paul,” to allocate more funding to fix local roads while “slashing state dollars that counties use to operate everything from courts to health departments.”
A more than $5 billion cut to what Whitmer proposed for Michigan’s largest state agency, the Department of Health and Human Services. The proposal includes major cuts to funding for hospitals. Hall said some of the cuts to the DHHS budget would be realized through Medicaid savings, by accelerating, to Jan. 1, the implementation of Medicaid work requirements included in Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” recently passed by Congress.
A nearly $41 million cut from what Whitmer proposed to the budget of Democratic Attorney General Dana Nessel, who has been one of the nation’s most active attorneys general in filing lawsuits to block alleged executive overreach by Republican President Donald Trump. Identified savings include nearly $218,000 by removing the department’s allocation for a diversity, equity and inclusion officer. The budget also includes language calling for legislative approval before the AG sues the federal government.
Identifies $2.1 million in savings from state “leases terminated from office space consideration.” Those leases are not specified but with many state employees still working from home several days a week, GOP lawmakers have expressed concerns over both state-owned and state-leased buildings sitting largely unoccupied. In July, the Free Press reported that taxpayers will shell out an extra $845,000 in rent over the next five years to move state employees into a Detroit building, owned by a major political donor, less than two blocks away from a state-owned office complex that is more than 40% vacant.
A prohibition on the purchase or lease of electric vehicles for the state fleet. In 2023, Whitmer signed an executive directive requiring state government to convert its entire fleet to zero-emission vehicles by 2040.
House Minority Leader Ranjeev Puri, D-Canton, said of the budget that “no responsible legislator could possibly vote for it, and we didn’t.”
The budget passed in a 59-45 vote, with only one Democrat, state Rep. Karen Whitsett, D-Detroit, voting with the Republicans.
Contact Paul Egan: 517-372-8660 or pegan@freepress.com.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: GOP state budget includes billions in cuts. Here’s what would get axed