State of Michigan Budget Updates

There is still a lot of uncertainty on how the State of Michigan budget will play out overall, but there is definitely a lot of conversation about how to spend the additional dollars that are coming into play. Last week, the Consensus Revenue Estimating Conference revised revenues for the current and upcoming fiscal years upward by $5 billion. For the current fiscal year, revenues were increased by $1.7 billion General Fund and $1.3 billion School Aid Fund. For the upcoming fiscal year, revenues were increased by $1.1 billion for the General Fund and $948.7 million for the School Aid Fund. It should be noted that there is still some reluctance to spend these dollars freely and add more programs or increase the budgets of departments not knowing what the future holds.

We continue to hear that the legislators are hoping for a budget to be in final form by the end of June (state law), but in actuality, they continue to reference the first week in July. They are also hoping that budget targets will be announced as early as next week. While many in the legislature will be in attendance at the Mackinaw Island Policy Conference next week, there is still a lot of work to be done to build consensus on the budget. On the heels of news that state revenues were increasing, the House of Representatives, Senate, and Governor Whitmer each moved on separate proposals for a tax cut for Michiganders. Currently, there is no consensus on what is the best road forward which is part of the reticence to spend.

As budget targets near, MLA continues to advocate for the version of the budget proposed by the Senate to include an additional $500,000 for State Aid to Libraries. We are also advocating for the Governor’s version of the budget ($50M) to make libraries eligible in the boilerplate language for the Out of School programming grants.

Learn more and view documents and reports from the Consensus Revenue Estimating Conference at www.house.mi.gov/hfa/Consensus.asp