The Senate Appropriations General Government Committee met to hear Governor Snyder’s proposal on revenue sharing, the Economic Vitality Incentive Program (EVIP) and other issues. Andy Schor and Tony Minghine of the Michigan Municipal League testified regarding the proposals. The testimony is included below. In adfdition to that testimony, the League presented several examples of questions by League members that have not been answered by Treasury. We pointed out that this is a big problem with the impending deadline for the third component of EVIP (dealing with employee compensation) coming up quickly. Senator Pappageorge said that was the first he had heard of these problems and wants the list from the League so the Legisalture can address these issues in the budget deliberations.
Senator Pappageorge also was critical of the the Administration’s recommended change to not allow communities that have opted-out of the health care 80/20 and hard cap requirements in PA 152 to qualify for the employee compensation of EVIP. Sen. Pappageorge said this would be a case of boilerplate in a budget overruling law, and that would be unlikely to happen. He also had problems with the additional projects being included because of all the previous projects being done. Pappageorge also said that there is about $1.2 billion in revenue sharing, and only $360 million is being allocated. He questioned where the other $650 million went, and wants to know if that is really a higher priority than having it go to revenue sharing. Sen. Colbeck agreed with the League and said that it is wrong for locals to do what the state is not doing. He said that the proposal for a 3 year forecast is not being done by the state and shouldn’t be a requirement for locals, and he said the same is true of consolidation of services. Sen. Jansen said that Kent County should not be penalized for the savings that they have created in the past. He was also concerned about other pieces of the budget.
Stay tuned as the budget proposal is worked on. We expect that the bill will see final consideration in the House Appropriations General Government Committee before the legislative spring break (the first two weeks of April).
Andy Schor is the Assistant Director of State Affairs for the Michigan Municipal League. Contact him at (517) 908-0300 or by email at [email protected].