LANSING, Mich. — Senate Republican Leader Aric Nesbitt, R-Porter Township, issued the following statement Wednesday in response to backlash from school groups regarding the current Democrat proposal to divert billions of dollars over the next 10 years to multinational corporations through the Strategic Outreach and Attraction Reserve (SOAR) fund:
“As the new school fiscal year rapidly approaches, Lansing Democrats’ budget process is bogged down by the absurd idea of raiding the teacher pension fund for special projects and giving millions of tax dollars to multinational corporations.
“We can protect teacher retirements by paying down MPSERS debt by an additional $670 million and we can invest $600 million more directly into classrooms by reducing schools’ MPSERS contribution rate as education groups have called for if Democrats abandon their latest corporate welfare scheme.
“Senate Republicans are ready to provide immediate effect to an education budget that puts tax dollars into improving Michigan’s woeful educational outcomes rather than the stock dividends of Fortune 500 companies. Let’s put classrooms over corporations.”
###
