Budget Director: More Money for Michigan in FY 2014
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The state announced projected revenue for FY 2014 during Friday's Consensus Revenue Estimating Conference. Video by fox47news.com
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State officials reached an agreement on Friday. The consensus is that Michigan will have about $20.7 billion in revenue for FY 2014, which starts on October 1st.
"There's no big surprise, the good news is the economy is up a little bit and that we are adding more money than we had anticipated," said Budget Director John Nixon.
According to Nixon, the slow but steady economic recovery may give the state more money to spend for once.
"We're not going to make huge steps but the hope is we'll be able to take some of this money that we do have available and make strategic investments in priorities like education," said Director Nixon.
Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee says he would like to see more funding for early childhood education.
"Our kids are going to perform better throughout their K-12 experience if they're well prepared when they go in," said Sen. Roger Kahn, R-Saginaw Township.
However, he's cautiously optimistic, noting that the state is seeing a decline in revenues. He says the solution is finding extra dollars somewhere else, making possible reductions, or both.
"Where belt tightening can be done is in corrections, the Department of Human Services, and in the Department of Community Health, those are the usual likely suspects," said Sen. Kahn.
Nothing is set in stone yet. Gov. Snyder will use these consensus numbers to put out a recommended budget early next month.
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