LANSING - House Democratic Leader Tim Greimel (D-Auburn Hills) and state Representative Rashida H Tlaib
(D-Detroit), Democratic vice chairwoman of the House Appropriations
Committee, said today the House Republicans and Gov. Rick Snyder should
be using the increased revenues the state will take in this year to
increase funding for schools, help Michigan’s middle-class families and
help cash-strapped cities provide services such as police and fire
protection. The additional revenue figures were announced today at the
Consensus Revenue Estimating Conference held in Lansing.
“I think that it’s clear where these additional revenues should go:
to tax relief for struggling middle-class families and to our schools
that have been trying to educate our kids after having nearly $2 billion
of their funding cut over the past two years,” said Greimel. “In order
to turn our economy around, we need to reinvest in families and schools
that have borne the brunt of Republican tax hikes and education cuts.”
Both the Senate and House Fiscal Agencies announced
better-than-expected revenues for the state, with the House Fiscal
Agency’s (HFA) estimates slightly lower than those of the Senate Fiscal
Agency (SFA). The revenue estimating conference said today that the
state can expect $482.6 million more combined General Fund and School
Aid Fund revenue in FY 2013 and $219.3 million combined General Fund and
School Aid Fund revenue in FY 2014 compared the January estimates.
“Schools are closing early this year and the Education Achievement
Authority operating in Detroit is diverting state funds away from school
districts because it can’t pay its bills, so I think it’s painfully
clear that a portion of this money is desperately needed to save our
students,” said Tlaib.
House Democrats’ priorities remain those that were outlined earlier
this year: protecting seniors and veterans, giving real tax relief to
struggling families and seniors hit hard with the senior retirement tax
and increasing funding to severely underfunded schools. Republicans have
so far this year turned down Democratic efforts to fund Meals on Wheels
for seniors, increase funding to local communities to keep police
officers on the streets and firefighters on the job, increase the
per-pupil funding for students, increase funding for Great Start early
childhood enrollment, protect veterans by funding substance abuse and
mental health treatment and failed to strengthen protections against
abuse and neglect at the state’s veterans homes. The state’s most
vulnerable children also would suffer under the proposed budget which
cuts hundreds of necessary workers who would protect children from abuse
and neglect.
“Turning Michigan’s economy around depends on keeping our communities
and families strong and properly educating our kids so they can be
successful,” said Greimel. “This money came from Michigan taxpayers and
we should return it to them in the form of sorely needed tax relief and
funding for their kids’ schools.”