LANSING, Mich. – Gov. Rick Snyder signed next year’s budget into law Wednesday afternoon in Lansing. It accounts for $54.5 billion in spending.
Snyder touts this year’s budget as “5 for 5”. He said it’s been 5 years in a row that a ‘smart’ budget has been passed by June. That’s several months before the deadline.
The Michigan House of Representatives and the Michigan Senate passed the bills earlier this month. Road funding is the major issue that no one seemed to have an answer for. Michigan’s roads continue to crumble after the overwhelming failure of proposal one. During the signing, the governor declined to elaborate on the House’s current road plan but said his office needs to sit down with the legislative branch to hammer out a long term deal.
Here are some of the line items:
Per pupil funding increase bringing the total allotment to $11.5 billion
$30 million to boost third grade reading
$400 million for road funding
$85 million for career tech programs
Adding $95 million to the state’s rainy day fund
Providing funding to hire 88 additional Michigan state troopers
“Actually, I’ve been watching press reports of other states, and I’ve been reading about their reports of working hard to get their budget approved,” Snyder said.
He added, “In one case, they actually said they approved their budget and they’re hoping to understand… to solve their problem in the next few days.”
“In many cases those states have budget years that end June 30th, where we’re several months ahead. So we should be extremely proud,” he concluded.
The budget starts October 1st.
