Michigan Budget Surplus: Is $800 Million Projection Premature?

There isn't a final number on Michigan's budget surplus for the 2011 fiscal year yet, but legislators are already debating how (or whether) to spend the leftover money.

Michigan's fiscal year ended Sept. 30, and the state budget office revealed a possible surplus. Estimates ranged from $1.2 billion, as reported by the Gongwer News Service, to more than $800 million, as reported by the Associated Press.

More than $200 million in appropriated funds weren't spent in 2011, according to Gongwer News Service. Some of that money came from one-time lapses in department budgets that don't necessarily reflect longterm budget gains.

Gov. Rick Snyder and other Michigan Republicans are saying it's too soon to start spending the extra money, according to the Associated Press.

Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Roger Kahn (R-Saginaw Township) told Gongwer News Service that most of the surplus funds are already committed for next year.

Others think the state should use extra funds to support schools, especially after drastic cuts to both k-12 and higher education earlier this year.

Just days after the estimated surplus was released, the state Board of Education passed a resolution recommending Michigan spend any significant portion of a surplus on education.

Snyder's controversial $46-billion budget plan for 2012 uses School Aid funds to balance the General Fund, resulting in $300-per-student funding losses. K-12 public schools got a 2.2 percent cut, with 15 and 4 percent cuts for universities and community colleges, respectively.

2012's education cuts follow a $100-per-student reduction this year.

Michigan's 2011 fiscal year started in October 2010 with a $277 million surplus.

The 2011 surplus funds might not get earmarked until early next year, when Snyder presents his budget for 2013 in February. The exact amount of this year's surplus won't be available until the state officially closes the books on 2011 at the end of March.

Comments

[isis24ktgld]

09:41 PM on 12/29/2011

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

http://www.mitechnews.com/articles.asp?id=13949

Ho, Ho, No - $1.2 Billion Michigan Budget Surplus Spoken For

LANSING - Lest anyone think the state suddenly has $1.2 billion in extra money, Sen. Roger Kahn, the Senate Appropriations Committee chair, said Tuesday that much of that will get used up on a variety of expenses and other commitments.

Gongwer News Service

Go to the above posted link to read the full article.

[OldMacdonald]

09:36 PM on 12/29/2011

You're welcome for the hundred you swiped from my pension check. Now you are 800 million in the pink and I have to cut another hundred a month off my budget somehow. Thanks a lot, bloodsucker!

[luapmi2]

06:47 AM on 01/01/2012

About time you leeches contribute.

[OldMacdonald]

05:59 PM on 01/01/2012

We contributed our entire lives punk.

[OldMacdonald]

07:53 PM on 01/01/2012

F. U.

[Electraglide]

08:01 PM on 12/29/2011

99%ers, prepare yourselves. Rick Snyder wants to eliminate Michigan’s current major business tax, replacing it with a flat 6 % corporate income tax. Snyder proposes to offset the revenue lost from dropping business taxes by increasing personal income taxes, such as elimination of the state’s Earned Income Tax Credit for low-income working families and taxing pensions. For the 2012 fiscal year, these personal income tax increases will not fully offset the business tax cuts, leaving Michigan with an additional $254 million deficit in 2012. In 2013 and after, the proposed tax increases would offset the cuts, but provide no extra cash to fill the state’s budget gap.

[corwin]

10:57 AM on 01/01/2012

Diffidently, I have to note a couple of things.First,the term '99% is inane.Thee are about 54 % of us paying fed taxes. It's why you leaches keep losisng elections.Secondly,Michigan's unemployment rate is now in single digits.And,the farther we recede for Jen Granholm,the better it will get.(And,why shouldn't a pension get taxed ? It's income extremely Non smart Person.

[michiganjag]

07:58 PM on 12/29/2011

As has been mentioned elsewhere, governments are not intended to make "profits" (or what they refer to as a surplus). If such a surplus exists, then repeal the tax on pensions that is scheduled to go into effect in 2012.

[luapmi2]

06:48 AM on 01/01/2012

Why should retirees be leeches...have they no pride at all?

[Dawn Rodriguez]

06:44 PM on 12/29/2011

This governor and attorney general have been the biggest setback to Michigan ever. Voiding the people's vote and ignoring what the people want will not be tolerated for long. All Republicans have got to go and any Democrats that side with their third world vision of Michigan.

[isis24ktgld]

05:34 PM on 12/29/2011

A good percentage of families have moved out of Michigan according to many news reports. That being the case, do the schools really need any portion of the surplus money since there are less students to teach? How about reinstating the Fireman and Police officers who have lost their jobs or taken pay cuts with a portion of the money? Or... how about giving the property owners a tax break for a change?

[myline2]

10:33 PM on 12/29/2011

They have cut funding to your schools by $400 per student. Do you think that amount might be missed? Let's take a classroom of 30 students and do the Math : 30 x $400 = ? Gee, isis, I think those kids are being cheated.

[corwin]

11:00 AM on 01/01/2012

And, I think the more money per pupil,the better kids will perform;. I admit it's not very bright to think that way, Isits,but I don't let data like DC spends the most per pupil in the country dissuade me.And,Detroit spends the most per pupil in the state. It's doing great in the old HS student accomplishments.maybe you could give me some reality denying experiences of your own?

[MIVOTE]

05:13 PM on 12/29/2011

That surplus came from emergency management which laid off all the police and firemen in Pontiac and Benton Harbor....stripping services from minority communities and pocketing the money....Emergency Management to this extreme is illegal and I await a big lawsuit.

[luapmi2]

06:51 AM on 01/01/2012

I am ever SO thankful that we got rid of Democrats.

[MIVOTE]

09:34 PM on 01/01/2012

C r oo ks seem to suit you better

[corwin]

11:01 AM on 01/01/2012

Benn in BH recently? It's improving. (FIrst, I have to say.,that didn't take much.)Secondly,save your complaints for when Detroit goes down

[MIVOTE]

09:35 PM on 01/01/2012

Detroit is no Benton Harbor...

[BigLeftbowski]

04:28 PM on 12/29/2011

Since governments shouldn't ever make money, it should obviously be given to the rich as tax cuts.

[RMS Queen Mary]

05:20 PM on 12/29/2011

ONLY IF THEY PASS A DRUG TEST FIRST.
DIRTY URINE? NO TAX CUTS FOR YOU!

[corwin]

11:15 AM on 01/01/2012

Diffidently, I have to explain a few things to you.
1) Gov'ts don't 'make ' money.They acquire it by taxing (taking) it from taxpayers.
2) Letting someone keep their own money is not the same as giving them someone else's money. It's a subtle concept,but surely anyone with a high 2 digit IQ should grasp it. Ask your Smart friends for help,if need be
3) You were a Liberal Arts major

[Cold in Michigan]

03:24 AM on 12/29/2011

King Snyder doesn't mention how he is getting the surplus, cutting education, taxing the lowest income. He only wants to make a name for himself for 2016 when he will step onto the national stage and follow Palin down that rabbit hole. How hard is it to get a surplus? Anyone could do it with tactics like Snyder.

[luapmi2]

06:52 AM on 01/01/2012

Then why did the Democrats continue to burden the State with more debt?

[corwin]

11:18 AM on 01/01/2012

And....and, have the unemployment rate diminish. Jen Granholm could have done that. (The only gov in history of the universe to have 8 yearly increases.) But,for some reason or other she didn't
And,diffidently, I note Detroit doesn't have a surplus. It has a deficit (But,it was pobably Sarah Palin's fault
"Looser"

[Cold in Michigan]

04:15 PM on 01/01/2012

Granholm was the one that got new industry to move to michigan and bring jobs that are only now showing up on the rolls. The battery industry was her coup, not Snyders. She was also instumental in saving the auto industry...something you care to ignore, as well as the banks pulling back from loans to companies that needed the short term loans to fill inventory. But as always, repugs tend to ignore what they don't want to see and make up thier own history.

[MIVOTE]

11:06 PM on 12/28/2011

So Michigan Republicans think they've done a great thing on the backs of the vulnerable..education and children.

Now let's see you help the citizens of the State S/ickRick!

[AmericanGrafitti]

10:19 PM on 12/28/2011

This article doesn't even mention biggest change..."End of pension exemption is biggest change to tax code" http://www.freep.com/article/20110529/NEWS06/105290506/End-pension-exemption-biggest-change-tax-code

[luapmi2]

06:53 AM on 01/01/2012

Long, long overdue.

[tartentart]

07:19 PM on 12/28/2011

WOW, here's a idea you GOP tools in Michigan legislature don't spend a dime and roll the surplus over to next year's budget.

[Winter War]

05:41 PM on 12/28/2011

This guy is the worst. Don't be a Rick.

[corwin]

06:47 PM on 12/28/2011

I can't believe they're with holding this money from the public school system.After the great job the schools have done. this pay for performance nonsense has to stop and stop now.

[Janine547]

06:41 AM on 12/29/2011

Forget it ! Increasing money to the schools has shown to yield no measurable long term benefits in education.