Legislature Fails To Pass K-12 Budget By Statutory Deadline

(Source: MIRS.news, Published 07/01/2025) As the sun set on the July 1 statutory deadline, no budget bills passed the Legislature and a conference committee has not been set into motion, despite the House being gaveled in for eight hours and the Senate’s K-12 bill being listed on the agenda for through passage.

Senate Majority Leader Winnie Brinks (D-Grand Rapids) told reporters there was “100 percent certainty that there will not be a negotiated budget bill in front of us today,” and at 4:59 p.m., the Senate's Wednesday agenda said “attendance will not be taken. No votes will be taken.”

After that adjournment, it appeared that the House would alter SB 166, Senate K-12 Budget Chair Darrin Camilleri (D-Trenton)’s bill for Fiscal Year 2025-26. However, after exiting a late-evening caucus meeting, the House voted on three policy bills and adjourned.

“Once (the Senate) adjourned, then I felt like we should go to House Democrats, some of the ones that generally bring positive feedback and see if there’s an opportunity,” Hall said after session. “Normally, there’s no reason to work with some of the minority party members on a budget, and when the Senate Democrats abdicated their responsibility and adjourned, I saw a unique opportunity for the House Democrats to become very relevant in the budget process.”

Democratic sources speaking on background told MIRS that House Democrats would have had the votes to get a K-12 across the finish line, but decided against it.

Hall said he didn’t think it provided a lot of value to put up another budget bill that would be partisan, even though he thinks they “probably could have got there.” He said he didn’t see how that would bring Senate Democrats to a deal on July 15, the next date both chambers are scheduled to meet.

“A lot of it was hearsay, verbal. When we tried to ask for things in writing, we wouldn’t get them, and we, Matt Hall and the Republicans have not given us a reason to ever take them at their word,” Leader Ranjeev Puri (D-Canton) said. “We sat down and tried, in good faith, to clean up the mess that he created, but again, they weren’t serious about actually getting a deal done.”

Hall called Puri and House Democrats irrelevant, and he then explained that doesn't, however, mean that he doesn't need the House Dems, just that Puri is not needed for negotiations.

“What I saw from (Rep.) Alabas Farhat (D-Dearborn) and the Democrats is that the House Democrats don’t want to be relevant on the budget and that’s fine,” Hall said.

Hall said he’s moving forward with Senate Democrats and the Governor without House Democrats.

“We will take a look at all future proposals from the Speaker. This one didn’t add up. Unfortunately, he doesn’t have 56 members that agree today is Tuesday. Schools lost today. Local roads lost today. We will once again be ready in September to manage the circus," Farhat said.

Puri said he has not been looped into negotiations, which he said is a failed approach by Hall.

“(Hall) is someone whose feelings get hurt when he doesn’t get his way. He doesn’t have a plan, he’s wasted everyone’s time,” Puri said, adding that nothing substantial was presented to House Democrats to get their votes.

Hall said now that the July 1 deadline has passed, he thinks it’s going to take quite some time to get a deal.

“They didn’t miss the deadline. They broke the law,” said Peter Spadafore, executive director of the Michigan Alliance for Student Opportunity.