State Budget

While reducing property taxes remains top of his "to-do" list, House Speaker Matt Hall (R-Richland Township) is wading into the debate over the total elimination of the state income tax with a resulting $13 billion hit to the state budget.

Record $1.7B Of School Aid Fund Money Funded Colleges, Universities In New Budget

The first effects of President Donald Trump's overhaul of Medicaid and food assistance programs are beginning to appear in the Department of Health and Human Services's (DHHS) Fiscal Year (FY) 2027 budget

A record $1.7 billion from the School Aid Fund is going to higher education and community colleges in the newly passed FY 2026-27 “school bus” budget, furthering a decades-old budget practice that has grown substantially in recent years.

The era of free-flowing COVID-19 money is officially over as a blurred-eyed House and Senate Friday passed a $75 billion Fiscal Year (FY) 2027 budget that rolled back federal spending authorizations, axed one-time appropriations and scratched alleged “ghost employees."

Lawmakers were unable to meet their statutory July 1 deadline to get the budget done and Rep. Regina Weiss (D-Oak Park) wants to do something about it going forward.

House Speaker Matt Hall (R-Richland Township)'s recent attempt to negotiate numerous policy bills alongside the Fiscal Year (FY) 2027 budget deal is slowing down progress to the point where finishing everything by Independence Day may not happen, MIRS has learned.

Legislative leaders and the Budget Office spent another day ironing out the final pieces of a Fiscal Year (FY) 2027 budget agreement, likely blowing through the statutory July 1 deadline to finish next year's spending document, but on pace to send a final deal to the governor by the July 4th holiday.

Legislative leaders and the State Budget Office signed off Wednesday night on spending targets for each department in the Fiscal Year 2027 budget, clearing the way for House and Senate appropriations subcommittees to begin negotiating final spending plans.

Lawmakers have requested a combined $4.383 billion for 1,320 special projects as part of the budget process, a number that equates to 5% of the Governor's recommended $88.1 billion budget for Fiscal Year (FY) 2027.

House Speaker Matt Hall (R-Richland Township) said Tuesday afternoon during his weekly press conference that a framework for a deal over the Fiscal Year (FY) 2027 budget has been reached.

The State Board of Education and several education leaders sounded the alarm about the possibility that the governor and the Legislature won't reach an agreement on the Fiscal Year (FY) 2027 budget by July 1.

Senate Majority Leader Winnie Brinks (D-Grand Rapids) says that the state Capitol's three major leaders have not yet met on the Fiscal Year (FY) 2027 budget, which they aim to finish by the end of June.

Rep. Matt Maddock (R-Milford) asked the state demographer Friday during the Consensus Revenue Estimating Conference (CREC) if killing Michigan's income tax could bring 1 million people back to the state.

Senate Democrats Wednesday adopted their $63 billion budget proposal for state departments and government programs, which Republicans protested with more than 45 failed amendment proposals.

Lawmakers this year are plowing through the budget process at a pace not seen in more than a decade, with both chambers advancing spending plans weeks earlier than usual. And in one case, months earlier.

While the House last week passed a budget slashing 62% of state funding from Michigan State University (MSU) and the University of Michigan (UofM), a national survey came out suggesting 78% of college grads believe their degrees were worth the cost.

House Republicans muscled their Fiscal Year (FY) 2027 budget plan (HB 5619) through the chamber Wednesday night, marking the earliest that a first-run omnibus has passed the House in at least a decade. It follows a cycle in which the House's first budget bill wasn't passed until late summer.

A House subcommittee advanced a Fiscal Year (FY) 2027 spending bill on Tuesday that includes a $145.3 million fund for legislative “pork” projects known formally as the Legislative Spending Transparency Fund (LSTF).

The House higher education budget advancing out of the Appropriations Subcommittee Thursday morning would cut funding for Michigan State University and University of Michigan by roughly 63%, redirecting much of the savings toward student scholarship programs.