LANSING – Governor Rick Snyder and Republican legislative leaders came to agreement Thursday on a framework to finalize the 2014-15 fiscal year budget that assures a hefty General Fund commitment to roads and funding increases throughout most of the government.

Besides an overall agreement, House-Senate conference committees approved budgets for 11 of the 17 departments and major budget areas although the ones remaining are typically the most difficult ones to resolve like the Department of Community Health, general government and K-12 school aid.

The last piece resolved before Governor Rick Snyder, Senate Majority Leader Randy Richardville (R-Monroe) and House Speaker Jase Bolger (R-Marshall) agreed to the budget targets was the nature of the $285 million in General Fund money for roads. Mr. Bolger wanted it classified as “ongoing” funds, putting it in a stronger position for renewal in the 2015-16 fiscal year budget while Mr. Snyder was resisting doing so.

Instead, Snyder agreed to publicly declare he would again propose the funding in the 2015-16 fiscal year budget (which presumes he wins re-election this year).

“Now that we have agreement on targets, we can move forward with completing the FY 2015 budget and have it ready for the governor’s signature in June once again,” said Kurt Weiss, spokesperson for the Department of Technology, Management and Budget. “As part of the agreement, the governor has agreed to $285 million in road funding from the General Fund not only in FY 2015, but he has indicated his commitment to continuing that funding in future budget recommendations to help fix our roads.”

The target agreement calls for an overall General Fund appropriation of $10.18 billion.

That includes a $94 million deposit to the Budget Stabilization Fund, up from Snyder’s initial recommendation of a roughly $70 million deposit. That means, accounting for the $194.8 million withdrawn from the Budget Stabilization Fund to aid Detroit pensioners as part of extracting the city from bankruptcy, the BSF would hold at $500 million, Weiss said.

The top leaders resolved two other key items. They agreed to continue $50 million in funding for the film incentive program. Snyder and the House had called for halving the program to $25 million while Richardville had proposed $60 million.

Additionally, controversial language the Senate added to the Department of Transportation budget severely restricting departmental staff’s ability to be involved in land acquisition for the new bridge connecting Detroit and Windsor, Ontario, was dropped. The language had so alarmed the Canadian government that the Windsor Star reported it was halting land acquisition efforts in Michigan until the issue was resolved.

Revenue sharing, money-wise, comes in close to Snyder’s recommendation, Weiss said. However, the chairs of the House and Senate Appropriations subcommittees are still negotiating the new rules on what local governments would have to do to qualify for it.

Here are the targets for each department and budget (all General Fund):

Agriculture and Rural Development: $45.9 million

Attorney General: $38.3 million

Civil Rights: $13.5 million

Community Health: $3.24 billion

Corrections: $1.98 billion

Education: $82 million

Environmental Quality: $40.9 million

Executive: $5.9 million

Human Services: $995.5 million

Insurance and Financial Services: $150,000

Judiciary: $186.5 million

Legislative Auditor General: $14.9 million

Legislature: $127.4 million

Licensing and Regulatory Affairs: $40 million

Military and Veterans Affairs: $49.2 million

Natural Resources: $48.6 million

State: $17.5 million

State Police: $384.2 million

DTMB: $479.1 million

Transportation: $286.2 million

Treasury: $117 million

Strategic Fund: $244.6 million

Community Colleges: $167.1 million

Higher Education: $1.21 billion

School Aid: $114.9 million

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