Michigan Governor Rick Snyder, Senate Majority Leader Randy Richardville (R-Monroe) and Speaker of the House Jase Bolger (R-Marshall) may have little trouble meeting their self-imposed June 1st deadline for legislative approval of the 2012-2013 fiscal year budget based on action taken this week, and action imminent for next week.
With the Legislature not leaving Lansing for the annual Mackinac Policy Conference, focus will be on reaching agreement and moving conference reports.
Highlights of the targets include $90 million set aside for income tax adjustments (see related story), and $140 million to the budget stabilization (“rainy day”) fund. The targets, in more detail, are:
Total
Department/Budget Area TOTAL GF/GP
Agriculture and Rural Development $36,098,900
Attorney General $33,825,800
Civil Rights $11,953,600
Community Health $2,817,437,800
Corrections $1,941,485,600
Education $68,093,200
Environmental Quality $29,812,400
Executive $4,887,900
Human Services $1,011,143,900
Judiciary $170,751,500
Legislative Auditor General $13,004,900
Legislature $109,412,700
Licensing and Regulatory Affairs $50,570,900
Military and Veterans Affairs $38,233,400
Natural Resources $19,737,900
State $14,888,100
State Police $317,513,800
Technology, Management and Budget $405,916,200
Transportation $23,000,000
Treasury-Debt Service $135,040,400
Treasury-Operations $88,347,100
Treasury-Strategic Fund Agency $173,701,600
Subtotal State Departments $7,514,857,600
Community Colleges $96,516,400
Higher Education $1,101,628,300
School Aid $282,400,000
Subtotal Education $1,480,544,700
Total State Departments and Education $8,995,402,300
The Legislature wasted little time – in fact, the conference reports for the Department of Environmental Quality and the Department of Natural Resources were signed Thursday. Nine more conference committees are expected to meet on Tuesday, May 29th.
The reported potential sticking points are the Senate, House, and Executive variances on some higher education items, such as how to distribute a scheduled 3 percent increase to Michigan’s fifteen public universities and how to handle the issue of reporting research on embryonic stem cells.