Michigan House Republicans passed two sprawling budget bills late Wednesday night, cutting overall state spending by $106 million compared to the current fiscal year and rejecting Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s proposed tax and fee increases.
The votes landed around 11:30 p.m. Both bills passed 56-51 and 56-49, strictly along party lines.
House Bill 5619, the general government spending package, and House Bill 5630, the education bill, were sponsored by House Appropriations Chair Rep. Ann Bollin (R-Brighton Township). Together they represent the House Republican vision for Michigan’s 2026-27 fiscal year, one that slashes general fund spending by nearly $600 million from current levels and, according to Bollin, keeps the state out of its rainy-day fund.
The Appropriations Committee spent nearly three hours Wednesday morning converting subcommittee work into the two omnibus packages before the full House took them up that afternoon. Debate stretched well past business hours.
What the cuts mean
A $600 million reduction in general fund spending is not an abstraction. For context, that’s the pool of dollars that pays for state agency operations, public safety programs, and services that don’t have a dedicated revenue stream. Bollin framed the cuts as fiscal discipline. Democrats called the bills a fraud.
“Right now, families are stretching every dollar just to keep up,” Bollin said in a statement released after passage. “They expect their government to be just as careful with their money. This budget reflects that by focusing on what truly matters. We took a responsible approach that covers every priority while reining in state government to ensure that taxpayers aren’t asked to pay more just to sustain the massive growth of state government we’ve seen over the last eight years.”
Bollin’s framing tracks with a broader Republican argument that Whitmer’s administration has expanded the state payroll and budget footprint beyond what Michigan’s economy can sustain without new revenue. The House budget rejects that revenue path entirely.
Democrats push back
The minority wasn’t quiet. Rep. Jason Morgan (D-Ann Arbor) called the bills a “sham” during floor debate, a word that drew a response from House Speaker Matt Hall (R-Richland Township), who told reporters afterward that the Democratic attacks were “lame.”
That’s it for bipartisan goodwill, at least for now. Every Democrat in the chamber voted no.
Hall held a news conference after the late vote and said he was “so pleased” with where the budget process stood. He pointed to continued efforts to identify ghost employees and root out what he described as “waste, fraud and abuse” in state government, themes he has pushed since taking the speakership.
The bills also picked up legislative earmarks added as amendments during the late session, a common practice that lets individual members direct spending toward specific projects in their districts before a budget leaves the chamber. Michigan Advance reported the earmarks were added during the overnight session hours.
What happens next
The House bills now head into negotiations with the Michigan Senate, which operates under Democratic control and has its own budget priorities. That split means the 11:30 p.m. vote Wednesday is the start of a long fight, not the end of one.
Michigan’s state budget process requires both chambers to agree on final figures before anything reaches Whitmer’s desk. Given that Republicans cut $600 million from the general fund while Democrats hold the Senate, the conference process will involve significant pressure from both sides. Whitmer has already signaled, through her own budget proposal, that she wants more revenue, not less, to fund state services and education.
The education bill, HB 5630, is particularly worth watching as the Senate responds. School funding in Michigan runs through a per-pupil foundation allowance structure set each year in the budget, and even modest changes translate directly into what districts across Wayne, Oakland, Macomb, and every other county can spend per student. Districts that have been flat-funded or cut in recent cycles have had to make hard decisions about staffing and programming. Whatever number survives conference will hit classrooms in September.
The Senate has not yet released its own budget counterproposal. When it does, the real negotiating begins, and both chambers will have to reconcile figures that are currently far apart before the October 1 start of the new fiscal year.
