North Michigan News

LANSING, Mich. — State Sen. John Damoose issued a statement following the Senate's passage of the fiscal year 2025 spending plan.

"The fiscal year 2025 budget plan was massive and relied on a $670 million raid to the public school teacher’s retirement fund to balance the books. There is no question the Democrat’s budget spends way too much money, but even worse, it shifts funds that were promised to our teachers and to schools for critical things like mental health and safety resources."

Damoose expressed concern over reallocating funds from the teacher's retirement fund, stating: "Taking money away from the teacher’s retirement fund sends a strong message that partisan spending is more important than covering the retirement funds that were promised to teachers after years of dedicated service. We’ve made great strides toward paying down debt in the public school retirement system, but this budget backtracks those efforts and further increases our debt obligations for taxpayers in the future."

He noted his attempts to collaborate with local education leaders before the vote: "I worked directly with superintendents and school employees from the 37th district prior to the vote to try to improve the budget, but ultimately the majority forced the budget through in the early morning hours with no positive revisions. The fact is, my schools are furious!"

Damoose highlighted additional concerns regarding funding cuts: "This is also the first budget in over a decade that does not include an increase in per-pupil funding. Mental health and student safety were also cut by 90%. These cuts were unnecessary, and it is disheartening to see so much wasteful spending and pet projects take priority over student performance, mental health support, and safety."

He concluded by expressing his inability to support these changes: "I couldn’t support these critical cuts to the K-12 budget, and I am shocked by the deliberate decision to pass more debt onto our children."