2003 House Bill 4401 ↩

House Roll Call 83: Passed

The House version of the FY 2003-2004 K-12 school aid budget, with $12.5 billion in gross spending. The amount expected to be spent in the 2002-2003 school year is $12.545 billion. The budget increases the minimum per-pupil foundation grant to $6,700, an amount which had been reduced in the 2002-2003 school year due to revenue shortfalls. The House version includes $198 million in general fund revenue which the governor had proposed replacing with savings realized from an accounting change, and assumes savings of $134.5 million in savings to be achieved by refinancing borrowing by the school bond loan fund, rather than savings of $100 million proposed by the governor. It leaves in place the current school pupil count formula the governor had proposed revising. (The revision would save $40 million by sending more to schools with falling enrollment and less to those which are growing.) The House also restores funding for a contract with Standard & Poor's to analyze and publish school performance data which was cut in the executive budget proposal, increases the monetary incentive for school districts to merge, cuts 25-percent from grants to encourage smaller class sizes, and makes various other revisions in smaller budget items. The budget retains the $6,700 minimum foundation grant proposed by the governor. (Note: Gov. Granholm’s proposed budget for this department is <a href="http://www.michiganvotes.org/2003-HB-4419">House Bill 4419 </a>.)Much more information on Michigan’s budget is available at <a href="http://www.mackinac.org/4964">Hot Topics: Michigan’s Budget Challenge</a> at www.mackinac.org/4964.