It’s strike three for Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s $25 million plan to push electric vehicles on Michiganders.

A House subcommittee has cut the proposal to offer $2,500 tax rebates for union-made electric or hybrid vehicles, or $2,000 for non union made vehicles, included in Whitmer’s budget for the third year in a row, Bridge Michigan reports.

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It was a signature initiative Whitmer touted in her 2024 State of the State address:

A few weeks ago, I rolled out MI Vehicle Rebate, a plan to lower the cost of buying a new car by offering a $1,000 rebate for cars and $2,000 for electric vehicles.

If it was assembled by a union, you get an extra $500 bucks—that’s up to $2,500 off. pic.twitter.com/OOYEVF8Hti

— Governor Gretchen Whitmer (@GovWhitmer) January 25, 2024

Also chopped by House Democrats on Tuesday is the governor’s plan to raise the tax on landfill owners to generate $80 million in new revenue.

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“We don’t have as much (money) at our disposal as we did during our last budget cycle, and so there’s decisions that have to be made,” Rep. Felicia Brabec, D-Ann Arbor, chair of the House Appropriations Committee, told Bridge.

In February, Whitmer laid out an $80.7 billion budget for fiscal year 2025. It’s slightly less than the record $81 billion Democrats spent for the current fiscal year, which included spending an unprecedented $9.2 billion surplus that came largely from federal COVID relief.

A Consensus Revenue Estimating Conference in January forecast the state to close fiscal year 2024 in September with $13.6 billion, or about $359 million more than initially predicted. Whitmer’s budget plans to spend $418 million in surplus, according to Michigan Advance.

But Democrats working to craft their second budget in 40 years have already shelved several of the governor’s big plans.

A House budget subcommittee last week nixed Whitmer’s much touted “Michigan Guarantee,” proposed to offer “free” community college to all. The plan aimed to amend the state’s Michigan Achievement Scholarship to cover tuition regardless of family income, as well as $1,000 stipends for some students for housing and other costs.

That budget proposal would have cost taxpayers $30 million in an effort to meet Whitmer’s goal of 60% of working-age residents obtaining a postsecondary certificate or college degree by 2030, Chalkbeat Detroit reports.

A Senate appropriations subcommittee has also ditched Whitmer’s proposal to cover preschool costs for all four-year-olds, opting instead to limit the move to Michiganders who earn 400% or less than the federal poverty threshold, according to Bridge.

The change will greatly reduce Whitmer’s initial proposal, which came with a $159 million price tag, while covering the cost for a family of four with an annual income of up to $120,000, Sen. Darrin Camilleri, D-Brownstone Township, told the subcommittee.

“That is huge … a massive step forward,” he said. “We believe that this is a sensible step forward to allow school districts to prepare more effectively for the transition to universal pre-K over the next several years.”

Rep. Bill Schuette, R-Midland, applauded the elimination of higher landfill fees as “an unnecessary tax and expense,” some Democrats are vowing to revive some of the governor’s proposals through standalone legislation.

“I do think that there is agreement that 36 cents in comparison to an average of $4 roughly in other states is a little bit embarrassing,” Rep. Rachel Hood, D-Grand Rapids, told Bridge. “I think we’re going to have to pull the conversation out of the budget cycle … so that we can come to agreements that work for all of us.”

Other aspects of Whitmer’s budget, meanwhile, are moving ahead.

“In the wake of a reported case backlog at the Michigan Department of Civil Rights, the governor proposed an additional $5 million to fund 29 additional employees to investigate and resolve discrimination complaints,” Bridge reports. “The House plan as currently proposed would net the department an additional $2 million and add additional stipulations for the money aimed at improving the investigation process.”

Democrats in both chambers are expected to continue negotiations in the coming months, while Republicans have vowed to resist runaway spending at a time when many in the Great Lakes State continue to struggle.

“Michigan families deserve a government that effectively spends their tax dollars on roads, schools and public safety, but Democrats recklessly squandered a $9 billion surplus, raised income taxes, and are raiding teacher retirement benefits,” Senate Republican Leader Aric Nesbitt, of Porter Township, said when Whitmer unveiled her budget in February. “It’s unfair to force Michigan families to pay billions in government corporate handouts as they struggle to deal with higher grocery bills and energy prices.”