House and Senate Pass Budget Bills

Liz Gullett

May 14, 2021

This week, the House and Senate passed their respective versions of the state budget bills for the upcoming 2022 Fiscal Year, moving the state one step closer to having a finalized budget. Many of the budgets were passed along partisan lines and are in contrast to what Governor Gretchen Whitmer had recommended. This will necessitate negotiations between each chamber and with the executive office if the legislature wishes to avoid line-item vetoes, especially at the level that occurred a couple of years ago.

Items within the Senate budgets include:

- 2% increase to operations for public universities and community colleges
- A $2 million increase for Michigan Works!
- $750,000 for the Attorney General’s office to investigate unemployment benefits fraud
- $100 million for Unemployment Insurance Agency offices to reopen
- $12 million for cybersecurity
- A $308 million increase to per-pupil funding
- Funding to train an additional 50 state troopers

The House budgets include:

- The K-12 budget is an increase of 5.5% over the current fiscal year
- Cuts $1.5 million in funding for the food safety/quality assurance program
- A $491,500 increase to county fairs baseline funding, nearly doubling the appropriation from the current fiscal year
- $15 million for a Dam Safety Emergency Fund
- $1.1 million for a Brownfield Development Fund
- A deposit of $102.3 million into the School Aid Stabilization Fund
- $25 million for grant funding to K-12 schools implementing a year-round calendar

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