Rinke’s plan to strip billions from public schools and roads described as a “piss-poor public policy proposal” by Michigan economist Mitch Bean
Yesterday, out-of-touch millionaire Kevin Rinke unveiled his disastrous agenda to make crude cuts to the state budget and the critical services it funds. The used Toyota salesman has since passed on several opportunities to explain how he would establish revenue streams to make up for the “dramatic” losses – a clear sign that he’s more interested in forcing his wrong-for-Michigan agenda on working families than protecting their interests.
Michigan would suffer the following major cuts from what Michigan economist Mitch Bean described as Rinke’s “piss-poor public policy proposal.”
- General Fund, -62.5% or -$7.89B: Under Rinke’s agenda, Michigan’s General Fund would be reduced by nearly two-thirds. It serves as the primary funding stream for the Departments of Health and Human Services, Corrections, and State Police, on top of half of all revenue for other critical departments.
- School Aid Fund, -21.4% or -$3.24B: Rinke also would like to slash public education funding by a significant amount, which is in line with his similarly disastrous agenda to convert Michigan to a school voucher system that would have reduced state investment in education by upwards of $500 million annually.
- Michigan Transportation Fund, -$600M: Rinke – who has failed to offer plans to continue strengthening Michigan’s infrastructure despite his months on the campaign trail – is seeking to undercut the state’s ability to keep making crucial repairs to roads and bridges. This cut is particularly self-defeating because the fund’s resources are federally matched, meaning it would also reduce the total amount that gets appropriated to Michigan for transportation.
Per Gongwer reporting, Rinke’s plan “does not explain” how any of these significant revenue losses would be recovered, nor did he answer inquiries attempting to uncover whether he actually “weighed the potential damaging effects of such a plan if enacted.”
MDP spokesperson Rodericka Applewhaite issued the following statement:
“Even Kevin Rinke can’t defend his out-of-touch tax agenda that would eliminate funding for law enforcement, public schools, and fixing the damn roads. He won’t answer basic questions because he knows his backwards vision would leave Michigan communities less safe, public school students out in the cold, and our infrastructure without the resources it needs to keep improving. Working families will have no issue seeing Rinke’s disastrous agenda for the lemon it is.”
