Public Act 158 of 2003

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• Introduced by Rep. Marc Shulman (R) on March 18, 2003, to provide a “template” or “place holder” for a Fiscal Year (FY) 2003-2004 multisection K-12 school aid supplemental budget. This budget contains no appropriations, but these may be added later to make changes to current or future appropriations.
  • Referred to the House Appropriations Committee on March 18, 2003.
    • Reported in the House on April 9, 2003, with the recommendation that the substitute (H-1) be adopted and that the bill then pass.
  • Substitute offered in the House on April 10, 2003, to replace the previous version of the bill with one adopted by a party-line vote in the appropriations committee. This version expresses differences between the Republican-majority in the House and Governor Jennifer Granholm regarding certain details of this budget. See House-passed version for details. The substitute passed in the House by voice vote on April 10, 2003.
  • Substitute offered by Rep. Gretchen Whitmer (D) on April 10, 2003, to replace the committee substitute adopted by the House with one which assumes savings of $100 million from refinancing borrowing by the school bond loan fund, rather than $134.5 million in the committee substitute, and replaces $198 million in general fund revenue with savings realized from an accounting change proposed by the governor. On the spending side, this substitute would cut funding for the Standard & Poor's school performance contract, add back money for smaller class size grants, return the school district merger incentive amount to the lower number proposed in the executive budget, cut funding for certain math and science centers, appropriate an extra $15 million for Detroit schools, and make various other changes which reflect differing priorities of the Democratic and Republican House caucuses. Both versions retain the $6,700 minimum foundation grant proposed by the governor. The substitute failed in the House (46 to 59) on April 10, 2003. [Vote Details and Comments]
  • Amendment offered by Rep. Marsha Cheeks (D) on April 10, 2003, to appropriate an extra $15 million for Detroit schools. The amendment failed in the House by voice vote on April 10, 2003.
  • Amendment offered by Rep. Jim Plakas (D) on April 10, 2003, to eliminate a requirement that the Department of Education must assign a district code to charter schools within 30 days after a contract is submitted by the school’s authorizing body, rather than "in a timely manner" as required under current law. The district code is necessary for the school to receive school aid payments from the state. Note: on the day the amendment was offered, the state superintendent of schools announced he would refuse to issue the codes to seven new charter schools created by Bay Mills Community College. The amendment failed in the House (49 to 54) on April 10, 2003. [Vote Details and Comments]
  • Amendment offered by Rep. Howard Walker (R) on April 10, 2003, to extend the monetary incentive proposed for school districts to merge, so it also applies to cases where one district annexes another. The amendment passed in the House by voice vote on April 10, 2003.
  • Amendment offered by Rep. Carl Williams (D) on April 10, 2003, to strike out a provision authorizing the use of appropriations for “at risk” pupils for a program which provides computers and Internet access in high schools. The amendment failed in the House (45 to 59) on April 10, 2003. [Vote Details and Comments]
  • Amendment offered by Rep. David Farhat (R) on April 10, 2003, to increase the standard cost projection of a 450-hour adult education program from $880 per student to $2,850 per student, for purposes of reallocating to other schools adult education funds which had previously gone to a district which no longer offers the program. The amendment passed in the House by voice vote on April 10, 2003.
  • Amendment offered by Rep. David Woodward (D) on April 10, 2003, to cut funding for the $2 million contract with Standard & Poor's to analyze and publish school performance data. The amendment failed in the House (46 to 58) on April 10, 2003. [Vote Details and Comments]
  • Amendment offered by Rep. Jerry Kooiman (R) on April 10, 2003, to cut eight-percent, rather than 24.75-percent, from approximately $26 million in proposed grants to encourage smaller class sizes. The amendment failed in the House (47 to 53) on April 10, 2003. [Vote Details and Comments]
  • Amendment offered by Rep. Mike Nofs (R) on April 10, 2003, to increase appropriations for adult education programs from $20 million to $28.5 million. The governor’s budget proposes reducing this funding from $77.5 million in the previous year to $20 million. The amendment passed in the House by voice vote on April 10, 2003.
  • Amendment offered by Rep. Paul Gieleghem (D) on April 10, 2003, to add back money for smaller class size grants, with the funding to come from reductions in a program to provide wireless Internet access in classrooms, and from eliminating the Standard & Poor's school performance contract. The amendment failed in the House (53 to 50) on April 10, 2003. [Vote Details and Comments]
• Passed in the House (60 to 44) on April 10, 2003, the House version of the FY 2003-2004 K-12 school aid budget, with $12.5 billion in gross spending. The amount expected to be spent in the 2002-2003 school year is $12.545 billion. The budget increases the minimum per-pupil foundation grant to $6,700, an amount which had been reduced in the 2002-2003 school year due to revenue shortfalls. The House version includes $198 million in general fund revenue which the governor had proposed replacing with savings realized from an accounting change, and assumes savings of $134.5 million in savings to be achieved by refinancing borrowing by the school bond loan fund, rather than savings of $100 million proposed by the governor. It leaves in place the current school pupil count formula the governor had proposed revising. (The revision would save $40 million by sending more to schools with falling enrollment and less to those which are growing.) The House also restores funding for a contract with Standard & Poor's to analyze and publish school performance data which was cut in the executive budget proposal, increases the monetary incentive for school districts to merge, cuts 25-percent from grants to encourage smaller class sizes, and makes various other revisions in smaller budget items. The budget retains the $6,700 minimum foundation grant proposed by the governor. (Note: Gov. Granholm’s proposed budget for this department is House Bill 4419 .)Much more information on Michigan’s budget is available at Hot Topics: Michigan’s Budget Challenge at www.mackinac.org/4964. [Vote Details and Comments]
• Received in the Senate on April 22, 2003.
  • Referred to the Senate Appropriations Committee on April 22, 2003.
  • Reported in the Senate on June 17, 2003, with the recommendation that the substitute (S-1) be adopted and that the bill then pass.
  • Substitute offered in the Senate on June 18, 2003, to replace the House version of this budget with a Senate version which expresses policy differences between the bodies on certain spending items. See Senate-passed version for details. The Committee of the Whole added a number of amendments in non-role call votes, revising details related to the proposed “ed flex” law, the use of money appropriated for class size reduction, at-risk student programs, professional development for teachers, reading programs, and more. The committee added money for bilingual language programs, a program at Grand Valley State University that provides special instruction to children with motor impairment, programs for gifted and talented students (now called “advanced and accelerated”), and more. Another amendment (sponsored by Rep. Alan Cropsey) would require school sex education programs to include the information that having sex person under the age of 16 is a crime punishable by imprisonment, and those convicted may be listed on the state Internet sex offender registry for at least 25 years. The substitute passed in the Senate by voice vote on June 18, 2003.
  • Amendment offered by Sen. Michael Switalski (D) on June 18, 2003, to establish a new "school aid rainy day fund," as proposed by Gov. Jennifer Granholm, with $98 million of the money disbursed to states by the federal government under the 2003 tax cut bill. Money placed in the current general "rainy day fund" (Budget Stabilization Fund or BSF) may be used for school funding, but money in the "school aid rainy day fund" could not be used for non-education related purposes. A provision of the regular BSF requires that if its balance drops below $250 million, this stops the phase-out of the Single Business Tax (value added tax). Money placed in the "school aid rainy day fund" would not count toward this minimum tax-cut threshold level, which could postpone the resumption of the phase-out of the Single Business Tax. The amendment failed in the Senate (16 to 22) on June 18, 2003. [Vote Details and Comments]
  • Amendment offered by Sen. Ron Jelinek (R) on June 18, 2003, to allow the use of at-risk student funding for tutorial services, early childhood programs for children age 0 to 5, and reading programs. The amendment passed in the Senate by voice vote on June 18, 2003.
• Passed in the Senate (38 to 0) on June 18, 2003, the Senate version of the FY 2003-2004 K-12 school aid budget, with $12.58 billion in gross spending. The amount expected to be spent in the 2002-2003 school year is $12.545 billion. The budget increases the minimum per-pupil foundation grant to $6,700, an amount which had been reduced in the 2002-2003 school year due to revenue shortfalls. The Senate version of this budget generally follows the lines of the House version. It retains the $6,700 minimum foundation grant proposed by the governor. The Senate added more money for adult education, gifted and talented student programs, math and science centers, health education, and more. It retained a contract with Standard & Poor's to analyze and publish school performance data, but with less funding than the House version. The Senate added a provision giving home school and private school students access to services provided by the Michigan virtual university, without charge beyond what is charged to a public school student for the same services. (Note: Gov. Granholm’s proposed budget for this department is House Bill 4419 .)Much more information on Michigan’s budget is available at Hot Topics: Michigan’s Budget Challenge at www.mackinac.org/4964. [Vote Details and Comments]
• Received in the House on June 18, 2003.
• Failed in the House (1 to 103) on June 19, 2003, to concur with a Senate-passed version of the bill. The vote sends the bill to a House-Senate conference committee to work out the differences. [Vote Details and Comments]
• Received in the Senate on June 24, 2003.
• Passed in the Senate (36 to 0) on July 16, 2003, the House-Senate conference report for the Fiscal Year (FY) 2003-2004 K-12 school aid budget, with $12.59 billion in gross spending. (Note: Gov. Granholm’s proposed budget for this department is House Bill 4419 .) The amount expected to be spent in the 2002-2003 school year is $12.545 billion. Of this, $260.1 million will come from the General Fund (funded by actual state tax revenues). The budget increases the minimum per-pupil foundation grant to $6,700, an amount which had been reduced in the 2002-2003 school year due to revenue shortfalls. It places $22 million into a new “School Aid Stabilization Fund” ("school rainy day fund") proposed by the governor after the 2003 Bush tax cut granted more money to the states. (Note: By placing this money into a new fund instead of the regular Budget Stabilization Fund [BSF], resumption of previously enacted Single Business Tax [SBT] cuts may be delayed, since the cuts are postponed whenever the BSF balance is under $250 million, which it is now.) The governor’s proposed cut to adult education is included; the program will get $20 million compared to $77.5 million in the previous year’s budget. Funding for a contract with Standard & Poor's to analyze and publish school performance data continues at a lesser amount than the previous year. A $15 million additional subsidy given to the Detroit School District in previous years is not included, and a $22 million work-based learning program was reduced to $1 million. The compromise budget also adds $39.3 million to buy laptop computers for public school sixth-graders. Finally, it includes elements of House Bill 4227, which would revise the manner in which pro-rated cuts are made to school districts in the event of a revenue shortfall. Much more information on Michigan’s budget is available at Hot Topics: Michigan’s Budget Challenge at www.mackinac.org/4964. [Vote Details and Comments]
• Received in the House on June 24, 2003.
• Passed in the House (83 to 24) on July 16, 2003, the House-Senate conference report for the Fiscal Year (FY) 2003-2004 K-12 school aid budget, with $12.59 billion in gross spending. (Note: Gov. Granholm’s proposed budget for this department is House Bill 4419 .) The amount expected to be spent in the 2002-2003 school year is $12.545 billion. Of this, $260.1 million will come from the General Fund (funded by actual state tax revenues). The budget increases the minimum per-pupil foundation grant to $6,700, an amount which had been reduced in the 2002-2003 school year due to revenue shortfalls. It places $22 million into a new “School Aid Stabilization Fund” ("school rainy day fund") proposed by the governor after the 2003 Bush tax cut granted more money to the states. (Note: By placing this money into a new fund instead of the regular Budget Stabilization Fund [BSF], resumption of previously enacted Single Business Tax [SBT] cuts may be delayed, since the cuts are postponed whenever the BSF balance is under $250 million, which it is now.) The governor’s proposed cut to adult education is included; the program will get $20 million compared to $77.5 million in the previous year’s budget. Funding for a contract with Standard & Poor's to analyze and publish school performance data continues at a lesser amount than the previous year. A $15 million additional subsidy given to the Detroit School District in previous years is not included, and a $22 million work-based learning program was reduced to $1 million. The compromise budget also adds $39.3 million to buy laptop computers for public school sixth-graders. Finally, it includes elements of House Bill 4227, which would revise the manner in which pro-rated cuts are made to school districts in the event of a revenue shortfall. Much more information on Michigan’s budget is available at Hot Topics: Michigan’s Budget Challenge at www.mackinac.org/4964. [Vote Details and Comments]
• Signed with line-item veto by Gov. Jennifer Granholm on August 11, 2003, which means that a $15 million grant to the Detroit School District included in the current law will go forward.
• Received in the House on August 13, 2003.
  • Referred by Rep. Randy Richardville (R) on August 13, 2003.