Yesterday, the House of Representatives passed HB 5365, the omnibus budget bill for Fiscal Year 2012-13. There were no changes made in the House from what the subcommittee passed regarding EVIP/Statutory Revenue Sharing. So, the bill still contains a $10 million increase in funding from the Governor’s proposal. And it still relaxes the three category requirements form the Governor’s original budget proposal. For the first category locals have to include one future year of budget projections, rather than three as the Governor proposed. For the second category the House says you need to update the consolidation plan and list any proposals OR why new proposals aren’t feasible. The Governor had required one new proposal for consolidation. For category three, the House eliminated most of the technical requirements and they allow locals to qualify for the third category by being in compliance with PA 152 (the hard cap, 80/20, opt out act dealing with health care costs). We would like to thank Representative Poleski (R-Jackson) for his leadership on this issue, and working with locals to ensure this program was flexible enough that communities cold meet benchmarks and further reduce costs, while obtaining their critical funding. The bills will now be negotiated with the Senate and finalized in the next few weeks.

Summer Minnick is the Director of State Affairs for the League. She can be reached at (517) 908-0301 or [email protected].