Oakland County Stands to Lose Millions With Whitmer Budget Vetoes
“When you cut a billion dollars out of the state budget, you’re going to impact everybody,” says Oakland County Commission Chairman Dave Woodward.
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s line-item budget vetoes could have a significant impact in Metro Detroit.
In Oakland County, those vetoes could represent between $4 million and $5 million in cuts to county programs. That’s according to Oakland County Commission Chairman Dave Woodward, who says the vetoes will affect funding for law enforcement, jails, childcare, environmental protections, veterans programs, and more unless the funding is restored.
“These are cuts that, if allowed to stand, will have significant impact. And it doesn’t have to be this way,” said Woodward. “We need leaders to step up, get to the table, don’t leave the table until the deal is done.”
Woodward says that doesn’t include indirect funding from other agencies that provide services for Oakland County residents.
Whitmer’s vetoes have had an outsized impact on rural areas of the state, targeting things like rural hospitals, sheriff departments, Pure Michigan, clinics, as well as small and isolated school districts. But Woodward says Metro Detroit isn’t immune.
“When you cut a billion dollars out of the state budget, you’re going to impact everybody,” he says.
Woodward says he agrees with Whitmer that the budget process leading up to the line-item vetoes was “a mess.” He says the budget lacks sufficient funding for critical programs, especially infrastructure and schools.
Oakland County has a budget that totals nearly $1 billion. Although these cuts represent a tiny fraction of that overall budget, Woodward says they are still significant for the specific programs that are affected.
