Gov. Rick Snyder on Wednesday unveiled a $56.8 billion state budget proposal that would be an increase of less than 1 percent compared to spending in the current fiscal year.
Here are some of its highlights:
___
ROADS
- A $325 million shift of general funds toward the roads and bridges budget. That would be $175 million more than what is required by law under a 2015 road-funding package. In that deal, which also boosted fuel taxes and vehicle registration fees, the state will gradually transfer more from the general fund to transportation over time. Snyder wants to accelerate road work.
___
EDUCATION
- A $120 to $240 per-pupil increase for K-12 school districts. For the 75 percent of districts receiving the minimum grant, the $240 boost would be the largest in 17 years.
- Up to $50 in funding for each student enrolled in a career and technical training program.
- The continuation of a $25 per-pupil grant for each high school student.
- A 2 percent bump in overall operations funding for Michigan’s 15 state universities, ranging between a 1.5 percent increase for Lake Superior State to a 3.1 percent boost for Oakland University.
- To qualify for their full state funding, universities would have to limit tuition increases to 3.8 percent - or $490 based on the average per-student tuition cost statewide.
- Funding for 28 community colleges would remain flat.
___
PRISON FOOD
- The end of the privatization of prison food service, which began in 2013 and Snyder says has been unsuccessful and would be too expensive to continue when an existing contract expires in July.
___
LAW ENFORCEMENT
- $6.1 million to hire 80 state police troopers to address attrition and another 50 new troopers on top of the existing force level.
- $9.2 million to train more than 350 corrections officers to fill vacancies.
- $1.5 million to fund 10 new conservation officers.
___
ENVIRONMENT
- A proposed increase in the landfill dumping fee from 36 cents per ton to $4.75 per ton to generate $79 million annually for cleanup of contaminated sites and other environmental programs. The revenue would replace the Clean Michigan Initiative, a bond issue approved by voters in 1998 that generated $675 million but is expected to dry up this year. Snyder says the average cost per family would be $4.75 a year.
___
WATER INFRASTRUCTURE
- A new state fee on water customers in systems of 1,000 or more users. The maximum fee would ultimately reached $5 a person per year. It would generate $110 million to pay for asset management, grants and loans for water and sewer infrastructure, and a fund for water and sewer emergencies.
- $26 million to address Flint’s water crisis, largely to continue replacing thousands of lead pipes. Lead from the lines seeped into the water supply after regulators failed to require anti-corrosion treatment.
___
INDIGENT DEFENSE
- $61.3 million to help 134 local indigent criminal defense systems implement four initial minimum standards created in the wake of a 2013 law to improve publicly funded defense for poor people accused of crimes.
___
REVENUE SHARING
- Constitutionally guaranteed state payments to cities, villages and township would rise by nearly $25 million, or 3.1 percent, due to higher sales tax collections.
- They would see no boost in statutorily allowed revenue sharing.
- Counties would see a slight dip in revenue sharing of less than 1 percent.
___
OTHER ONE-TIME SPENDING
- $20 million to expand broadband access.
- Using more than $100 million in unspent money from the last fiscal year to pre-pay costs to build new veterans homes in the Detroit and Grand Rapids areas, and to make infrastructure upgrades at the Capitol. Snyder says it would save $48 million in interest costs.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.