Insider Intelligence

This week the legislature voted to approve the budgets for the upcoming 2019-2020 fiscal year. Following months of negotiations, both the House and Senate passed the budget bills funding the various departments and agencies. The bills will now be sent to Governor Gretchen Whitmer for consideration. She can either sign each of the bills, veto […]

I recently had a meeting with leaders from a local community to talk through their priorities.  At the top of their list, the 2020 Census.  It didn’t surprise me, but I remember thinking this should be a top priority for the entire state.  Since that meeting, I have seen a number of newspaper articles highlighting […]

Moving forward in the process, this week the House passed several budgets for the upcoming 2019-2020 Fiscal Year. Aspects of the budgets include: 1% increase to community colleges 7% increase to universities 4% increase to K-12 funding Per-pupil funding increase of $90-$180 An additional $81.3 million in constitutional revenue sharing, meant to off-set the reduced […]

While crafting the upcoming fiscal year budget, the House and Senate will have a slightly increased amount of money to appropriate, according to updated economic estimates. This news comes as a result of the biannual Consensus Revenue Estimating Conference that was held today in Lansing. Today’s conference is a follow-up to January’s conference, where updated […]

This week both the Senate and House Appropriations Committees and Subcommittees reported several bills for the upcoming fiscal year to the full Senate and House floors for consideration. Key points of the Senate budgets include: K-12 foundation allowance increase between $135-$270 per pupil Constitutional revenue sharing would increase by $51.2 million An additional investment of […]

The Senate Transportation Appropriations Subcommittee reported their budget this week without including Governor Gretchen Whitmer’s proposed 45-cent gas tax increase. In order to fund repairs to roads and bridges, the subcommittee instead fully implemented the road funding plan passed in 2015 one year earlier than is required under the law. The proposed appropriation totals $600 […]

From time to time you hear Michiganders remark, “why do we need to spend more money on schools and education, doesn’t the lotto pay for that?” Much like Bigfoot and the Loch Ness monster, this is one of Michigan’s biggest budget myths. The Michigan lotto was first authorized by a constitutional amendment in 1972 and […]

Roads and education would see a large boost in funding under Governor Gretchen Whitmer’s executive budget recommendations. Speaking before a joint hearing of the House and Senate Appropriations Committees, she focused on improving public education, closing the skills gap, helping businesses find talent, ensuring clean drinking water, and fixing the roads. Pointing to the stagnant […]