LANSING, Mich. (AP) - The Michigan Senate on Thursday approved a $56.6 billion budget plan that would provide the biggest increase in base aid for lower-funded school districts in a dozen years while slightly trimming a main fund that covers other state spending, largely due to a projected drop in public assistance caseloads.
The move set the stage for further talks more than a week after the House approved its own plan . Once a meeting to revise revenue estimates is held on May 16, Gov. Rick Snyder and the Republican-led Legislature will work to finalize the next budget in June, about four months before the start of the fiscal year.
The Senate plan includes a $230 per-pupil increase for school districts that get the minimum grant, which would be the largest since the 2006-07 fiscal year. Higher-funded districts receiving the basic grant would get $115 more per student in the 2018-19 budget. The House and the Republican governor proposed a slightly higher per-pupil boost ranging between $120 and $240.
“All areas of education we’re investing record amounts in, and I think that’s important for the future of our state,” said Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Dave Hildenbrand, R-Lowell.
General fund spending would fall 3 percent below this year’s amount and be 8 percent less than what Snyder proposed.
While the Senate unanimously passed many of its 16 spending bills, the chamber split largely on party lines over GOP-backed measures related to big-ticket items such as roads, schools, environmental protection, prisons and social services.
Democrats opposed the proposed privatization of 300-plus nursing jobs in the Department of Corrections and the rejection of Snyder’s request for $13.6 million to help transition to using state workers again to help feed inmates.
The state contract with Trinity Food Services will expire at the end of July and will not be extended, largely due to problems with inadequate staffing levels. The Senate plan, unlike the House blueprint and the one outlined by the governor, could force the state to contract with a company for nurses and to spend the same amount on food service despite the administration’s contention that it will cost more to hire state employees.
Democrats also unsuccessfully tried to add $450 million more for roads and bridges along with an additional $65 million for environmental protection. Neither the Senate nor House budget includes $79 million in revenue that would be generated by Snyder’s proposed increase in a state fee for taking waste to landfills.
Sen. Curtis Hertel Jr., D-East Lansing, said he proposed the extra spending on roads because a 2015 transportation-funding law will not be fully phased in until 2021. The Legislature recently added $175 million for roads in the current fiscal year, which means overall road spending would actually drop in the next budget, he said.
“The longer we wait, the problem becomes more expensive to fix,” Hertel said.
The Senate plan also would:
- boost overall university operations funding by 3 percent, more than increases proposed by the House and Snyder. One-third of the additional aid would have to be spent on sexual assault prevention, student mental health and campus safety programs. Senators also voted to require that the governing board of each state university receive written notice of any instance of possible campus sexual misconduct in the wake of the Larry Nassar scandal at Michigan State.
- require the state to rewrite the health education curriculum so middle and high school students receive age-appropriate information about the importance of consent, setting and respecting personal boundaries, and preventing child sexual abuse.
- send a message to Snyder that Republican legislators are serious about creating a work requirement for Medicaid recipients. The budget includes a provision that would withhold pay for top Department of Health and Human Services officials unless they seek and win approval of a federal waiver to implement the requirement. A Senate-passed bill proposing a Medicaid work requirement is pending in the House.
- signal lawmakers’ intent to prohibit certain adults from qualifying for health insurance through the Healthy Michigan Medicaid expansion program after receiving the benefit for 48 cumulative months. Currently, recipients hitting the cap can continue getting coverage if they meet a healthy behavior requirement.
- close a prison, which the House also backed. Snyder did not propose a closure.
___
Follow David Eggert on Twitter at https://twitter.com/DavidEggert00 . His work can be found at https://apnews.com/search/David%20Eggert
Please read our comment policy before commenting.