MICHIGAN: House Approves Bill Cutting Funding To Gay-Friendly Universities

The GOP-dominated Michigan House has approved a bill penalizing state universities that offer same-sex partner benefits to members of their faculties. If the bill becomes law, any state college that offers domestic partner benefits will see their funding cut by 5%. The measure was authored by Tea Party-backed Rep. Dave Agema (left). Todd Heywood reports at the Michigan Messenger:

Shortly after 8 p.m. Thursday night, State Rep. Dave Agema (R-Greenville) posted the following status update to his Facebook page announcing the amendment: "I had an amendment put into the education budget that takes 5% away from colleges that give same sex/unmarried benefits and places up to $60 million of that into the MPSRS K-12 budget if colleges do not stop skirting the law and the will of the people. Colleges can’t say they are short of money when they skirt the law and give such benefits. The Dems didn’t like this – it passed."

The bill now goes into a conference committee between the two state chambers. Heywood notes that Agema has introduced a similar measure several times in recent years.