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All right, so this budget includes
another historic investment to the
education system here in Michigan.
So I want to talk a little
bit about that first,
what does that exactly mean?
The increase nearly just $1000
short about of $10,000 per student.
What does this increase in investment
to education mean at the student
and teacher level around the state?
It gives the school districts
and and education professionals
the resources they need to truly
meet students where they are.
The truth is the depth of
the needs of our students,
particularly those who are living in
in families that are fighting poverty
or in our most rural communities
need a lot of help and support at
this time when school has been so
challenging for our kids and education
professionals over the last few
years to help get back on track.
So this provides the resources so they can,
you know, have more programming
and more available more more.
Pair of probes.
Better supported and better,
better resource and better paid
to be able to help kids with the
with the resource with the research
and the help that they need.
And it also makes sure that we
have more mental health supports
available for children who have
been going through so much trauma
over the last couple of years.
But I think also we need to point to
the hundreds of millions of dollars
for and 75 million to be exact that
we're investing in improving school
buildings and school infrastructure
again to make environments that
are there to support learning and
environments that will be safe for
our children so parents can have.
When their kids are going to school,
we think this is going to make a
real difference in positioning young
people in Michigan for success and
expanding access to preschool for
thousands more Michigan families
is going to make a big difference
in preparing children to be able
to be early readers.
And we think this education budget,
you know,
the large education budget in the
history of the state of Michigan
represents our values that the
most important investment that
we make is in our young people.
And that's what's going to put us in a
pathway for a bright future in Michigan.
All right, and then you were speaking a
little bit about like rural communities,
low income communities.
This is the second education
budget that includes the Equal
student funding across the board
across all school districts.
What type of meaningful impacts
does this mean for school districts
who historically receive less
funding than school districts in
more affluent areas of the state?
While it sets a floor for equity,
when it comes to education funding,
different districts and different families
in different districts have different needs,
and so by really bringing equalization
bringing this promise from the mid 90s
to fruition for the second year in a row.
Shows that we can make equity based
investments in our schools that are
aligned with the research that shows
that districts where students are
fighting poverty need more investment.
And we're we're finally now bringing
that to reality here in Michigan and
Michigan families and Michigan young
people are going to benefit from it.
Right and then you also spoke
about mental health services.
I we saw a huge increase in funding
and mental services right here in
West Michigan and across the state.
Why was that so important to increase
the funding and have such a large
amount go to mental health in Michigan?
The truth is our mental health support
infrastructure has been divested over
the last 30 plus years and so this budget
represents a big investment in that and
the investments that we made for for
young people in education professionals.
Particularly important because.
Things have just been through so much
they've had the adults in their lives say.
I don't know a lot more than they've ever
experienced in the last couple of years
and haven't been able to give them answer,
and they have their own questions,
and so they have more trained and
trusted adults available to them in
more places that have other mental
health support services to support
everyone in our communities who may be
dealing with anything from challenges
at home to substance use, disorder,
and other challenges to have facilities
to be able to walk into that are lower.
No cost that don't require insurance,
but that will get you the help that
you need so that you don't end up.
I'm in a crisis situation where they
don't end up in jail and not getting
the services that you need on this
budget represents an investment
and all those things that is the
direction that Michigan needs to go.
So we're very proud to have worked on
this in a bipartisan way to deliver
for every community in Michigan.
When do you foresee this investment?
Having down the road impact on
lessening costs for mental health?
If people are have more availability
to getting treated earlier on,
do you see this in the future at reducing
costs for people going seeking treatment?
Absolutely, the increased availability
we believe will lead to increased usage.
That certainly is a demand for it.
And by using this by having
more early intervention and
more consistent intervention,
it will save us our money on
catastrophic interventions or
things that may happen too late.
There's a community cost that's not
just the dollar amount that that
that we'll be able to save in terms
of tragedies that are happening
with people who may overdose or
commit suicide or attempt suicide,
that can be reduced if people have ready
access to mental and behavioral health
support services in their communities.
That's super easy to get to,
that's affordable,
and we think this will really
change the trajectory for the state.
All
right and then another huge portion of
the budget is obviously infrastructure.
And when you and the governor came
into office, the roads in the state
were not the best and you've already
shown a commitment to improvement.
We've seen some of that first hand already
and but even with infrastructure being
a huge part of the budget with billions
of dollars going towards rebuilding,
maintaining roads and bridges on top of the
other recent investments that were put forth,
it's still a long road ahead with
bringing Michigan roads up to a
standard that Michigan Michiganders
are going to be happy with,
and then also maintaining them.
Is this level of investment?
Sustainable in the future,
and is it actually enough?
We know we need more.
We're going to continue to work to
find ways to invest more and in the
since we've been in office and by the
end of this year we will have fixed
one 16,000 lane miles of state roads.
We'll have prepared and replaced more than
1200 bridges in the state of Michigan.
This is making our roads safer.
This is making them the jumping
off points for economic activity
all across state of Michigan.
As folks are driving around
the state driving up north.
This summer,
getting ready to enjoy the the
beautiful resources that God gave us,
they'll be able to do so safely and
save money on not having to fix their
cards because the road broke them.
So we certainly are going to
always fight for more dollars,
more resources to do that,
and we we've done this without
raising taxes already,
and we're looking forward to finding more
solutions to be able to do just that.
All right. And then there is about
a 7 billion additional dollars set
aside in the budget for like tax
relief and other different economic
stimulus programs and stuff like that.
Where does your administration?
Believe that money should go
to support Michiganders past
three big areas. The first is on
repealing the retirement tax on
people's pensions and other retirement
income that was enacted by the
Republican legislature 10 years ago,
and we're ready to roll that back
and put money back in the pockets
of our retired Michiganders.
The second is on tripling the working
families earned income tax credit for
people who have jobs and are working hard,
but still may not be able to make ends meet.
Repealing this will put thousands of dollars
in the pockets of more than 700,000 people.
In the state of Michigan so they can
have money to buy food, buy groceries,
to buy to buy gas to buy medicine at
a time when things are so expensive,
and they need the extra money
to be able to cover those costs.
And the third is to have an inflation relief,
a $500 check,
go to every Michigan taxpayer.
Something else that we proposed
earlier this year to put forward.
We think this will help people save money,
and we have the resources to do it,
so we're looking forward to
negotiating getting these things
done OK, and then you mentioned
negotiating and getting things done.
Do you think the Republican LED Legislature
is willing to work with you on locating?
Pay for all those programs or which program
do you think would be the one that is
most likely to receive their support.
Those three programs are our priority,
so we welcome them to be at
the table to talk with us and
work with us to get it done.
I think they are also the
priorities of their constituents.
Folks want to see money in their
pockets and our three programs will put
money in people's pockets right away,
not later on. Not next year,
but right now when things are
expensive and we can get that
done today this year. All
right, and then I just have
one final question for you,
what particular portion?
It's a 2 parter.
What particular portion of the budget
is your administration most proud of?
And then by contrast,
what area of the budget do you?
Does your ministration believe?
Should be more of a priority.
Well, the second question first
we want to provide relief to
people right now and that's why.
Again, the proposals on repealing the
retirement tax and tripling the earned
income tax credit and putting $500
in the pockets of every michigander.
That's a priority that we're ready to
get to to the negotiating table to
finalize and get to people immediately.
Get immediate relief.
I'm super proud of this education budget.
You know, I'm the parent of two
school aged children and a child
who's in daycare and the deep
investments that we've made both in
our school infrastructure and the
per pupil spending and in supporting
our education professionals at
the childcare level all the way up
through the secondary education level.
This is transformative for our Michigan
schools and our Michigan families.
So we're really excited about
what it represents.
Well, thank you very much.
I appreciate you spending time with me.
If there's anything else you'd like
to add before I let you go, feel free.
I think you got it.
I appreciate you for having
me. Alright thanks, have a good
one to you. You too bye bye.