Suspending Lawmakers' Pay For Missing Budget Deadline Fails In House

(Source: MIRS.news, Published 08/21/2025) The House failed by four votes to adopt a measure that would put on the ballot a constitutional amendment that would withhold the Governor’s and legislators’ pay if they don’t pass a budget for the upcoming fiscal year by the July 1 statutory deadline.

The entire Republican caucus voted in favor of HJR M, but enough Democrats either stayed off the voting board or voted no to prevent the measure from earning the two-thirds support needed for its passage. It needed 74 votes in the House and got 70.

“All general appropriation bills” would need to be enacted by July 1 or lawmakers’ salaries will be suspended. Once a budget is passed, they would receive back pay, rather than missing out on the pay they would have received.

HJR M put forth by Rep. Jamie Thompson (R-Brownstown) is a manifestation of what Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan proposed earlier this summer when the July 1 statutory deadline passed without a budget.

Thursday in a press conference, Hall credited Duggan with the idea, and said without the provision, “Democrats in the Senate walked away.”

“If there was a provision saying that if the politicians don’t have a budget done by the statutory deadline, I would have got a deal done by July 1,” Hall said.

In her floor speech, Thompson said the current July 1 statutory deadline has no penalty or enforcement mechanism, and this constitutional amendment would crack down on deadline enforcement.

“If there’s a delay, there’s no pay,” Thompson said.

Before HJR M was put on the board Thursday, Democrats went into caucus, and Republicans put the resolution on the board and kept it open until they came out of caucus.

MIRS has learned that the resolution caused some internal strife within the House Democratic caucus, as members argued whether voting yes as a bloc, no as a bloc or voting their respective districts was the best play. In the middle of it was House Minority Leader Ranjeev Puri (D-Canton), who initially suggested a “yes” vote, according to a source, but voted no. The caucus meeting went on for well over an hour.

At the crux of the argument was whether voting “yes” made the caucus look good to their constituents, but at the expense of giving House Speaker Matt Hall (R-Richland Township) a political win.

Hall called for the vote at 1:13 p.m. At about 1:30 p.m., Rep. Karen Whitsett (D-Detroit) told Hall to close the board while he was at the press desk, and Hall proceeded to tell reporters that his understanding was that Democrats were hiding in their caucus room to avoid voting on HJR M. At that point, Rep. Peter Herzberg (D-Westland) was the only other Democrat that was a yes on the board besides Whitsett.

The rest of the Democratic started voting at 1:48 p.m. The board closed at 1:54 p.m. with Democratic Reps. Julie Brixie (D-Okemos), Jennifer Conlin (D-Ann Arbor), Alabas Farhat (D-Dearborn), John Fitzgerald (D-Wyoming), Herzberg, Matt Koleszar (D-Plymouth), Jasper Martus (D-Flushing), Mike McFall (D-Hazel Park), Denise Mentzer (D-Mount Clemens), Jason Morgan (D-Ann Arbor), Whitsett, Angela Witwer (D-Lansing) and Mai Xiong (D-Warren) all voting yes.

Yesterday in a press conference, Senate Majority Leader Winnie Brinks (D-Grand Rapids) said she is “more than happy” to consider withholding lawmakers’ salaries if a budget isn’t passed by the deadline.

The Senate passed their version of the budget in mid-May and the governor’s executive budget recommendation was made in early February. Meanwhile, the House hasn’t moved any budget bills for Fiscal Year 2026 besides education bills in mid-June.

When Hall was speaking to reporters after the vote, he said in negotiations he’s dealing with a group of unserious people that want to blame their political opponents rather than get a deal done, and if Democrats had “skin in the game” by having their paychecks on the line, there would be a budget deal by now.

The passage of HJR M through the House and Senate with two-thirds of the vote in each chamber would have put this question on the Nov. 2026 ballot, meaning the measure wouldn’t go into effect until the 104th Legislature is negotiating the Fiscal Year 2028 budget and either the approval or failure of HJR M on Thursday wouldn’t affect legislators currently.

Still, though, Hall said he’s going to be negotiating more budgets as speaker and plans on holding the speakership until he’s term-limited, so a measure like this would help him negotiate future budgets.

Hall said the Democrats’ constituents are going to be very unhappy about them wanting to keep their pay and not have to pass budgets, at which point House Democratic Spokesperson Tracy Wimmer asked “where is your budget?”

Hall turned to her and said she wouldn’t be allowed on the floor anymore.

“If you guys want to start yelling at each other during scrums, we’re gonna change a lot of rules around here, so I’d be very careful,” Hall said as he walked away from the press.

House Appropriations Chair Ann Bollin (R-Brighton) said they shouldn’t have had to pass a Joint Resolution to implement this practice since “this is the right thing to do,” and challenged Brinks to put it on the board in the Senate.

When asked if she would voluntarily have her own paycheck suspended moving forward until a budget is passed, Bollin said she would.

Leader Ranjeev Puri (D-Canton), one of the Democrats who voted no on HJR M, said this is more political theater that doesn’t get closer to a budget passing.

“We showed up to work in the trifecta, we got a budget done every single time, on time, and Matt Hall has never proven to be able to get a budget done,” Puri said. “I don’t know how many times he has invoked my name, the minority caucus’ name, for the failures of the majority caucus.”

Alternatively, Rep. Dylan Wegela (D-Garden City) made the counter-suggestion that instead of suspending pay, perhaps legislators should be fined a percentage of their net worth if they don’t pass a budget on time. He said this would prevent legislators who aren’t independently wealthy and come from working-class backgrounds from feeling a disproportionate strain.

Rep. Noah Arbit (D-West Bloomfield) called the vote “a fucking joke. The biggest waste, fraud and abuse is the people of Michigan having to pay Matt Hall's salary while he and he alone hurtles the state toward a government shutdown at warp speed, and defunds meals for kids at school. Is there currently a bigger waste of money, a more fraudulent leadership, or abuse of power in Lansing than Matt Hall?”