Politics & Government

District, Sen. Kowall Respond to State Budget Deal

While the news is better than expected, the district has some concerns.

On Thursday, the state officials announced that cuts in per-pupil funding for schools would not be as much as the anticipated $470 per-pupil.

According to a release from Gov. Rick Snyder's office, concessions for state employees could be reduced by $35 million, meaning schools would not lose the approximate $300 per-pupil as original proposed. The deal would also give school districts back $100 per student, plus another $100 if a district adopts what officials call “best financial practices," such as outsourcing non-instructional resources and finding ways to reduce costs associated with employee benefits.

"The devil is in the details, as they say," Janet Roberts, director of community relations with the Huron Valley School district, said. "Right now we are trying to get a handle on what exactly this means for us."

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Roberts said while the new budget agreement does provide some relief, the district will still have financial challenges based on the existing expenditures and loss of revenue not addressed by the budget agreement.

"These include declining enrollment, increase in expenditures such as utilities, FICA and retirement (even with the $100 offset in the budget deal)," Roberts said. "Also, the reduction in the $470 is tied to certain 'best practices' which have yet to be defined fully, so we do not know if we will qualify for these reductions."

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"For example, I understand one of them is competitively bidding all non-instructional services," Roberts continued. "Currently we have agreements in place for some of these areas so we will be forced to bid regardless of the agreement to receive the funding or we will be allowed to wait until the agreement has expired?"

The good news, for the district at least, is if the budget is passed into law by May 31 — as Snyder has instructed — the district will know exactly how much money they will receive from the state before they have to finalize their district budget on June 30.

"The details of the budget deal will be necessary for us to fully understand the implications and impact on our budget," she said, "But yes, if we have a state budget in place by May 31 that will be helpful to finalize our budget by June 30."

Senator Mike Kowall (R-White Lake) said if everything goes well, having a budget in place by May 31 will be the earliest a budget's been passed in the last 45 year.

"It was very imporant that we were able to put money back into K-12," Kowall said. "I am very pleased we were able to do that. We have good schools (Huron Valley) with dedicated teachers and parents. They were very upset with the Governor's proposed cuts. I am happy we were able to lessen those cuts and continue to fund our district."


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