To provide the “template” or “place holder” for a Senate Republican version of a Fiscal Year 2004-2005 Department of Environmental Quality budget. This bill contains no appropriations, but may be amended at a later date to include them.   Official Text and Analysis.

With the recommendation that the substitute (S-1) be adopted and that the bill then pass.

To replace the executive proposal for this budget, contained in Senate Bill 1039 , with a budget that expresses policy differences between the Republican-majority in the House and Governor Jennifer Granholm on certain spending items. See Senate-passed version for major features, and Senate Fiscal Agency analysis for detailed analysis. (the “Text and Analysis” at the top of this bill’s MichiganVotes.org page is a link to this).

To strip out a $700,000 appropriation for weed-control in Higgins Lake.

To eliminate a proposed air quality program funding source shift that would substitute general fund money with air pollution permit fee revenue.

The Senate version of the Fiscal Year (FY) 2004-2005 Department of Environmental Quality budget. (Note: Gov. Jennifer Granholm’s proposed budget for this department is Senate Bill 1039.) This appropriates $326.2 million in adjusted gross spending (funded from all sources, including special state restricted fund and federal pass-through dollars, minus interdepartmental transfers), compared to $332.2 million, which was the FY 2003-2004 amount enrolled in 2003. Of this, $36.0 million will come from the general fund (funded by actual state tax revenues), compared to the FY 2003-2004 amount of $56.1 million. The Senate version authorizes approximately the same amount of gross spending as the governor recommended. Much more information on Michigan’s budget is available at Hot Topics: Michigan’s Budget Challenge at www.mackinac.org/4964.

With the recommendation that the substitute (H-1) be adopted and that the bill then pass.

To replace the Senate version of this budget with a House version which expresses policy differences between the bodies on certain spending items. See House-passed version for details.

To authorize $800,000 in Clean Michigan Initiative bond proceeds to perform a public health study in the Midland area related to the effects of past dioxin pollution there. This is a compromise worked out between Republican legislators and the governor after the Department of Environmental Quality proposed testing the soil on some 21,000 properties and 11,000 homes for the presence of dioxin, using a stringent standard that could require the soil to be removed from many homes and lots. See House Bill 5963.

To restore a 15 percent cut to the compensation of the director of the Department of Environmental Quality, and strip out a $5.4 million cut in the department's operations funding.

To strip out an eight percent cut in the number of personnel authorized by the budget for this department.

To remove a requirement that the department must contract out environmental lab work, and allow but not require them to.

To require the Department of Environmental Quality to complete a county-by-county inventory of wetlands as required by law, which would inform property owners in advance whether the state wetland permit law prohibits improvements that would have been allowed before the permit requirement was imposed.

To add funding line items for environmental studies of two particular areas.

To restore funding for the department's hazardous waste enforcement division, which was stripped out by the House Appropriations Committee due to a dispute between Republican legislators and the department after it proposed testing the soil on some 21,000 properties and 11,000 homes in the Midland and Saginaw area for the presence of dioxin, using a stringent standard that could require the soil to be removed from many homes and lots. See House Bill 5963. This amendment was the result of a compromise with the governor in which Clean Michigan Initiative bond proceeds will pay for a public health study related to the effects of past dioxin pollution there.

To require, rather than allow, the department to file reports mandated by the legislature over the computer internet, and prohibit it from using an internal government-only intranet for the purpose.

The House version of the Fiscal Year (FY) 2004-2005 Department of Environmental Quality budget. (Note: Gov. Jennifer Granholm’s proposed budget for this department is Senate Bill 1039.) This appropriates $321.7 million in adjusted gross spending (funded from all sources, including special state restricted fund and federal pass-through dollars, minus interdepartmental transfers), compared to $332.2 million, which was the FY 2003-2004 amount enrolled in 2003. Of this, $31.6 million will come from the general fund (funded by actual state tax revenues), compared to the FY 2003-2004 amount of $56.1 million. The House version authorizes approximately $4.6 million less gross spending than the governor recommended. However, the House version cuts General Fund money by $6.5 million, cuts total staff by eight percent, and cuts the director’s pay by 15 percent. Much more information on Michigan’s budget is available at Hot Topics: Michigan’s Budget Challenge at www.mackinac.org/4964.

To concur with a House-passed version of the bill. The vote sends the bill to a House-Senate conference committee to work out the differences.

The House-Senate conference report for the Fiscal Year (FY) 2004-2005 Department of Environmental Quality budget. (Note: Gov. Jennifer Granholm’s proposed budget for this department is Senate Bill 1039.) This appropriates $336.0 million in unadjusted gross spending, compared to $371.4 million, which was the final FY 2003-2004 amount. Of this, $31.6 million will come from the general fund (funded by actual state tax revenues), compared to the final FY 2003-2004 amount of $53.5 million. The budget allocates no funds for new environmental cleanups, which accounts for most of the decline from the previous year's spending.