DETROIT – July 2025 – Mike Duggan announced that his first act as Governor will be to call for a law to suspend the salaries of state elected officials if they fail to approve the state budget by the legal deadline.
“We are just six weeks from the start of the school year and none of Michigan’s 4,000 public schools has a real budget. Principals and teachers can’t properly hire or plan for their school’s opening without knowing their budget and it’s always our children who pay the price for this chaos,” Duggan said. “It’s about time Lansing had accountability.”
Michigan law requires the legislature to adopt the annual state budget by July 1, but the law provides no consequence for legislative inaction. “For the past six months, Democrats and Republicans in Lansing have been stuck in toxic partisan gridlock. Then, they gave up on July 1 and went home without passing a budget,” Duggan said.
Duggan said his first act as Governor would be to push legislation that immediately suspends the salaries of all public officials if the budget is not adopted by July 1. The bill would apply to the Governor, the Lieutenant Governor and all State Senate and House members.
In Duggan’s 12 years as Mayor, the City of Detroit met its legal deadline to pass the budget in all 12 years. “We need to change politics as usual in Lansing,” said Duggan. “If you don’t do your job, you don’t get paid.”
Mayor Duggan has made the State of Michigan’s 25-year decline in 4th grade reading scores a central issue in his campaign. In 2025, Michigan dropped to 44th in the United States in 4th grade reading levels.
“Instead of addressing the crisis in the schools, Lansing has made it worse by failing to pass a schools budget,” Duggan said. “I promise you this: If we hold up salaries, we’ll get a school budget approved immediately. If there’s one issue that Democratic and Republican legislators agree on, it’s that they all want their paychecks.”
As an Independent Governor, Mike Duggan can do what no partisan governor can: Put children’s education ahead of party politics.
