2003 Senate Bill 540 ↩

House Roll Call 496: Passed

A supplemental multi-department budget for FY 2002-2003 and FY 2003-2004. The bill appropriates $499.8 million in gross funding, mostly federal Medicaid money, and by replacing it with federal money reduces current year general fund appropriations by $13.3 million. The bill adds $268.1 million for Medicaid, and $41.5 million to upgrade technology in the state’s centralized child support collection and payment system. It contains $10 million for a grant to create a life sciences research and commercialization center in the Kalamazoo area, intended to keep in the area 75 to 100 scientists and support staff formerly employed by the Pfizer/Pharmacia Corporation. The bill provides $1.5 million in general fund money for payments in lieu of property taxes (PILT) to local governments on some one-million acres of state land under the jurisdiction of the Department of Natural Resources. It contains a number of other appropriations for various government projects, including federal money to enforce child support agreements, federal money for low income heating and housing programs, federal homeland security and voting system upgrades, and more. $3 million is appropriated to a new “Investor Protection Initiative” to pay for state-sponsored personal financial management skill training programs. The money will come from a projected $14.3 million from a national settlement related to charges of conflict of interest in investment banking and research analysis activities by Wall Street firms. There are many more appropriations and funding shifts contained in this bill.