LANSING – Economists on Friday
projected an upswing in Michigan revenues for both the current and upcoming
fiscal years, and many officials expect the increase will go toward
transportation and infrastructure funding. But Budget
Director John Roberts was quick to say the anticipated revenue increase is
one-time and the administration of Governor
Rick Snyder still prefers an ongoing, long-term solution to transportation
funding.
For the current 2014-15 fiscal year,
the administration, and the directors of the Senate Fiscal Agency and the House
Fiscal Agency agreed on an upward revision of $217.6 million for combined
General Fund and School Aid Fund revenue compared to their January Consensus
Revenue Estimating Conference numbers.
That revised General Fund figures
for the current year reflect a 5.2 percent increase 2013-14 revenues.
Net General Fund revenues are
expected to be more than $9.7 billion (increased $223.5 million from the
January estimate) while net School Aid Fund expects to see more than $11.8
billion (decreased about $5.9 million from January).
“It’s yet to be determined how
we’re going to break it down, but clearly transportation has been a
priority,” Roberts told reporters after the May Consensus Revenue
Estimating Conference. “What I would remind people – including the
Legislature – is a lot of that (increase) is one-time money, and one-time money
for infrastructure, it’s hard for us to pull bigger projects forward when you
don’t have ongoing revenue, which is something the administration will be
pushing for.”
Revenue estimates were revised
upward for fiscal year 2015-16 as well by $147.8 million to a total of more
than $22.1 billion combined General Fund and School Aid Fund.
Total revenues of more than $22.1
billion will represent a 2.4 percent increase over the current fiscal year. For
the General Fund, that revision includes $168.7 million increase in net revenue
but a $20.8 million downward revision for net School Aid Fund revenue.
Al Pscholka (R-Stevensville), chair of the House Appropriations Committee,
said the consensus Friday would allow House Speaker
Kevin Cotter‘s (R-Mount Pleasant) roads plan to get started.
“A lot of people have been
giving the speaker a hard time about his roads proposal, but I guess fairy
tales can come true,” Pscholka said. “I don’t see why we can’t have a
’16 budget that includes $350 to $400 million for roads. That puts us well
ahead of the speaker’s proposal on where we wanted to be.”
However, Rep.
Sam Singh (D-East Lansing) disagreed with that assertion.
“I’m sure the appropriations
chair knows the difference between one-time funding and long-term funding, so
again, if we are to solve a $2 billion a year problem, then we have to be
actually looking at long-term revenue,” Singh said. “Much of the
money we found today is one-time in nature and is not part of a long-term
conversation.”
In fact, Cotter’s plan was a
“disappointment,” Singh said.
“It doesn’t have real money
attached to it, it’s not long-term, (and) it’s not dedicated,” he said.
“Obviously the House Republican plan was a non-starter. Groups are calling
it fantasy, a joke. It’s time for us to have real negotiations now, not just
talk about big plans to get some media hits.”
Dave Hildenbrand (R-Lowell), chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee,
would not commit yet to using the additional General Fund money for roads
outlined in the House Republican plan, but said he would consider the proposal.
“That money may be available
down the road,” Hildenbrand said. “When you look at long term
planning for government, it’s all based on estimates.”
Any extra funds in any of the fiscal
years have a good chance, though, of going to roads he said. “I would say
roads is going to be a priority,” he said.
Hildenbrand said the key discussion
for the 2015-16 budget is on K-12 school funding. “We’re pretty far
apart,” he said of the chambers, though acknowledging that was more on how
the funds would be used than how much.
Pscholka, on the other hand, said
that budget would be between Rep.
Tim Kelly (R-Saginaw Township) and Sen.
Goeff Hansen (R-Hart), chairs of the respective subcommittees.
Pscholka did not expect the
direction of the budget to change much, even with the projection that there
will be additional General Fund.
“There’s not a lot of new
initiatives in here,” he said. “This is more of a making sure we
prioritize our spending; it’s making sure we pay down debt; we’re putting money
in the Budget Stabilization Fund.”
Other issues still to see
substantial discussions are fee increases and funding for the new Department of
Health and Human Services, Hildenbrand said. Roberts also said DHHS would be a
point of discussion between the administration and the Legislature, though he
was more focused on the savings from the creation of the merged departments.
“We think it’s a fair request
of them,” he said of administrative savings.
But he said the governor had not put
that in the budget because he was not planning that as one of the goals of the
merger. “We did not consolidate for backroom savings,” he said.
And Roberts said at least one part
of the House Republican roads plan would be a tough sell with the
administration: the 21st Century Jobs Funds. The money comes through the tribal
gaming and is designated through the compacts for economic development.
“These are legal contracts and
could be renegotiated,” Roberts said, but indicated the administration was
not at this point interested in doing that. “Our priority is to find it
elsewhere,” he said of road funds.
Roberts said he expected targets to
be set over the weekend.
This story was published by Gongwer
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