On Thursday, the House-Senate Conference
Committee signed the Higher Education budget report on a straight party-line
vote. Senate Bill 193 would provide approximately $25 million in additional
funding for the state’s 15 public universities and set the tuition restraint
at 3.75 percent. The restraint was also tied to performance-based measures. Additionally,
the report included a $2 million funding increase for the eight universities
under the Michigan Public School Employees Retirement System.
In addition to the modest funding increases,
Republican lawmakers inserted provisions in the report that would prohibit domestic partner benefits, require
universities to report on embryonic stem cell research, and allow social
workers not to counsel homosexual patients if it violated his or her religious
beliefs.
Meanwhile, the budget report (Senate Bill
199) for the state’s 28 community colleges was signed on Thursday morning. The
$336 million budget, which is aligned with Gov. Snyder’s recommendation, includes
funding increases from 1.7 percent to 2.6 percent to the respective
community colleges. The only point-of-difference between
the House and Senate budgets was a $1.1 million appropriation for the Virtual
Learning Collaborative. This initiative was included in the new budget target
agreement; thus, it was added to the final report.
The
Legislature is working to finalize all of the budgets before a self-imposed June 1 deadline. Since several
lawmakers will be attending the Detroit Regional Chamber’s Mackinac Policy
Conference next week, it is anticipated that the budget process will not be
completed until June 7.