Courtesy of Michigan School Business Officials:
The State held its Revenue Consensus Estimating Conference (CREC) on Monday, January 11, 2009 and the three parties (House Fiscal Agency, Senate Fiscal Agency and Michigan Department of Treasury) agreed on state revenue estimates for this fiscal year and next.
The Good News: The parties confirmed that there are enough revenues estimated so that no proration of districts’ foundation allowances will be necessary for 2009-10. The $165 cut to the foundation and the vetoes of Sec. 20j funding and other categoricals will stand. The balance sheet for the School Aid Fund (SAF) is projected to end the 2009-10 year with a $53.7 million balance, which will be available for 2010-11.
The Bad News: The SAF revenue estimate for 2010-11 includes the $53.7 million balance carry forward and the remaining $184.1 million in ARRA federal stabilization funds, but still falls short of estimated baseline expenditures by $423 million or $268 per pupil.
The Governor now has the challenge of preparing a balanced 2010-11 School Aid Budget based on these numbers and present the budget to the Legislature no later than February 12, 2010. The really bad news is the General Fund/General Purpose (GF/GP) budget is also showing a shortfall – the shortfall is over a billion dollars. This does not bode well for getting additional SAF support from GF/GP coffers.
One Interesting But Sobering Statistic: The economists that presented today stated that Michigan was 20th among states for Per Capita Income as late as 2001. By 2008, Michigan had fallen to 37th place and at the end of 2009, is our Great Lake State is estimated to fall to 40th place among states for Per Capital Income.