Governor Snyder has signed a $39.9 billion general spending bill and will sign the education part of the bill next week. He said he’s pleased with the plan, which marked the eighth straight year he was able to sign the next fiscal year’s budget months before the current one expires. Snyder noted there is more money to fix roads in this plan.
“2019 will have a 42% increase compared to 2015 (in road money), so I hope our citizens are looking forward to seeing a lot more barrels out there. These will be great projects,” Snyder told reporters. He also criticized Republicans in the House and Senate for including language aimed at removing funding from Planned Parenthood.
“We did a legal review of that, and it’s unenforceable language because it’s trying to change another statute that pre-exists,” said the governor. “If they wanted to look at that as an issue, it has to be done legislatively on that particular statute.”
Public funds already cannot be used to provide abortions or related services. Lawmakers inserted a provision prohibiting the state from contracting for family planning and pregnancy prevention services with an entity that does abortions, if another entity that does not perform abortions applies to provide the family planning services. Snyder says the language is unenforceable because it tries to change an existing law through the budget bill.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
