Sturgis-Coldwater News

Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey (R-Clarklake) recently added his voice to calls for fiscal responsibility as government at all levels attempts to navigate the uncertainty following the COVID-19 pandemic.

Shirkey’s comments on the subject appear on MiSenateGOP, in addition to the statements he made jointly with Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and Michigan House Speaker Lee Chatfield (R-Levering).

He said that the Republican Caucus stands behind the concept of a balanced approach to ongoing problems following in the wake of the coronavirus.

“As Congress contemplates further assistance to states, our caucus encourages them to balance fiscal responsibility with the realities of unprecedented challenges related to this insidious virus,” Shirkey said in the statement.

It is not enough to simply shuffle current costs into the future, leaving them as a problem for another day, Shirkey said. Even while addressing current needs, those efforts cannot come without an eye to the future. “We must resist the urge to default to debt and call it a plan,” he told MiSenateGOP.

Shirkey cautioned Congress against yielding to the pressure of the moment.

“The immediate needs of our country are very real,” he said, according to MiSenateGOP. “Restraint on spending will be difficult in the face of these needs, but absolutely necessary.” 

Shirkey also acknowledged the need for the state government to mind costs and expenses as the Legislature begins to consider how to approach creating a new budget in the next fiscal year.

“The fiscal needs of our state and our country are great in the wake of COVID-19,” Shirkey stated in the release. “The Senate Republican Caucus is committed to working with our partners in the House and the Administration to craft a reasonable budget for Fiscal Year 2021.”