Gretchen Whitmer (D-Mich.), the radical governor of Michigan who has come under overwhelming criticism for her excessive coronavirus lockdowns, has cut as much as $115 million from the budget for the Michigan State Police, as reported by Breitbart.
Whitmer made the budget cuts through Executive Order 2020-155, demanding that $115.07 million be taken from the state police budget, in addition to a slash of $392.67 million from Michigan’s Department of Corrections, and another $36.46 cut from the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services.
Whitmer apparently plans to make up for some of the cut funding with $107 million in federal funds from the recent coronavirus stimulus bills, although this is a temporary source of funding that will most likely not be available next year.
When asked about the massive cut to police funding, Whitmer said that “the spirit is really about reprioritizing [and] rebuilding communities, not just policing…you don’t need all the money that’s going into police departments.”
The decision in Michigan marks the latest major effort by Democratic governors and other elected officials to severely reduce police budgets in the wake of the far-left “defund the police” movement. In Los Angeles, Mayor Eric Garcetti (D-Calif.) cut $150 million from the budget for the LAPD. In New York City, Mayor Bill de Blasio (D-N.Y.) slashed $1 billion from the NYPD budget.