LANSING, Mich. – Michigan’s top legislative leaders agree the state’s budget was finished late this year, and that the delay created real uncertainty, especially for schools.
They sharply disagree, however, on who was responsible and why negotiations stalled.
Senate Majority Leader Winnie Brinks, a Democrat, rejected the idea that Senate Democrats dragged their feet.
“It certainly was not by design that the deadline was blown through, and certainly not because of the actions of Senate Democrats,” Brinks said.
Brinks blamed the House for the delay, saying negotiations could not begin until lawmakers there acted.
“The matter was the House failed to pass their version of the budget until late August, and we were not able then to even begin negotiating the differences and get a budget to the governor’s desk without that step,” she said.
House Speaker Matt Hall, a Republican, offered a very different explanation, accusing Democrats of holding out for excessive spending with little oversight.
“The Democrats in Lansing are addicted to pork spending,” Hall said. “We saw over a billion dollars in pork spending last year, and there was never any accountability or transparency. What held this budget up, really, at the end of the day was that the Democrats wanted to continue to spend the pork, and they didn’t want anyone to know what it was for.”
Despite the finger-pointing, both sides ultimately reached a deal — one that lawmakers acknowledged came with painful trade-offs.
“It required us to tighten our belts and make cuts,” Brinks said. “And there were some things there in the cuts that we did not really love to have to make.”
One of the few areas of agreement involved Michigan’s roads, which consistently rank among the worst in the nation. Both leaders say major investments are on the way.
Hall said residents should expect results as early as 2026.
“What people are gonna see is a major infusion into funding for local roads,” Hall said, adding that the funding was made possible by efforts to “cut waste, fraud, and abuse.”
Brinks said those road dollars did not come without consequences.
“When the other parties in the room insisted on squeezing more dollars out to fund roads, we did our best to keep those cuts out of the classroom and away from healthcare,” she said. “But there’s always something in there that you know, you kind of have to hold your nose and agree with the rest of the parties.”
Transparency also emerged as a rare point of overlap — though the two leaders define it differently.
Hall said he forced lawmakers to agree to permanent disclosure of legislative spending.
“What I did is I forced them to agree to the Hall Ethics Accountability and Transparency Plan, which is permanent transparency on the pork spending,” Hall said. “So now you must disclose the pork in advance.”
Looking ahead to 2026, both leaders said affordability will be a priority, whether it involves health care, schools, or taxes.
But based on their sharply contrasting accounts of this year’s budget fight, Michiganders should expect continued disagreement over how to get there.