2003 House Bill 4396 ↩

Senate Roll Call 385: Passed

The House-Senate conference report for the Fiscal Year (FY) 2003-2004 Higher Education budget. (Note: Gov. Jennifer Granholm’s proposed budget for this department is <a href="http://www.michiganvotes.org/2003-HB-4417">House Bill 4417 </a>.) This appropriates $1.789 billion in adjusted gross spending (funded from all sources, including special state restricted fund and federal pass-through dollars, minus interdepartmental transfers), compared to $1.943 billion, which was the FY 2002-2003 amount enrolled in 2002, excluding any supplemental appropriations, line-item vetoes, or later cuts. Of this, $1.632 billion will come from the general fund (funded by actual state tax revenues), compared to the FY 2002-2003 amount enrolled in 2002 of $1.812 billion. The conference report provides funding to universities ranging from an increase of 1.9 percent to cuts of 6.5 percent, with Saginaw Valley State and Grand Valley State Universities getting increases. It includes $4 million requested by the governor and stripped by the House for the Tuition Incentive Program, which provides financial aid to Medicaid-eligible low income high school graduates; tobacco lawsuit funding for the $2,500 merit scholarship awards made to high school students who do well on the state MEAP test is also included. The governor’s proposed elimination of private college scholarship programs is included in the conference report. $10 million for a grant to Western Michigan University to create a life sciences research and commercialization center intended to keep in the Kalamazoo area 75 to 100 scientists and support staff formerly employed by the Pfizer/Pharmacia Corporation has been transferred to a different bill. All told, the final bill is $14 million (gross spending) over the governor’s original recommendation, with no increase in general fund spending. 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.