Legislative Updates…
Ballot Proposal Fallout
With the failure of Proposal 1 this past Tuesday (failure being a charitable description), House and Senate leaders have indicated they intend to stay in session throughout the summer if necessary to work on road funding. Neither chamber has ruled out a tax increase or another effort to go to the ballot with a new proposal, but both have indicated they heard voters’ message that any solution needs to be simpler and more straightforward than Proposal 1. The House has indicated a desire to look at $20 billion in state restricted funds, and while open to new revenue, Speaker Kevin Cotter (R-Mt. Pleasant) has indicated that the vast majority of any new road funding plan must rely on existing revenue, and has no interest in a plan that would rely solely on new revenue (i.e., a tax increase).
However, the Senate has countered that a viable road funding plan must rely on a fair amount of new revenue, and that going after state restricted funds sounds good, but has been tried in the past largely to no avail. Both chambers have indicated a desire to review existing deductions in the income tax code to determine whether some are outdated, unfair, or in need of reform as way to free up new revenue for road funding. Expect more details on the road funding debate to emerge in the coming weeks as legislators prepare for a longer summer session than expected with road funding to again take center stage.
Budget Update
The House and Senate have passed their respective versions of the FY 2015-2016 state budget, and next week will take procedural actions to non-concur with the other chamber’s version in order to start the conference committee process to resolve differences. The House and Senate Appropriations Committees will meet jointlynext week Friday, May 15 for the bi-annual Consensus Revenue Estimating Conference (CREC) to finalize the estimated amount of revenue available for both the current budget as well as FY 2015-2016. After the House Fiscal Agency, Senate Fiscal Agency, and Department of Treasury concur on revenue estimates, the House and Senate will utilize those updated numbers indicating how much revenue is available in order to finalize the budget process.
Early Literacy
The bi-partisan, bi-cameral early literacy legislative workgroup, chaired by Autocam CEO John Kennedy, is getting closer to issuing final recommendations. According to Kennedy, the recommendations are expected to focus on increased attention to early literacy in college and university teacher preparation programs, expansion of funding for preschool/early childhood education and consistent statewide training standards for existing teachers. Many in the workgroup see Florida and Massachusetts as models to emulate going forward, though both states do have differences with respect to both policy and funding.
It remains to be seen what the Legislature will do with the workgroup recommendations, but most are likely to be introduced in bill form over the next few weeks to provide policy guidance for whatever level of early literacy funding is ultimately included in next year’s budget, to be finalized in mid-June. Paul and Matt Kurda (Karoub Associates) met with Senate K-12 Appropriations Subcommittee Chair Goeff Hansen (R-Hart) this week, and we are encouraged at the direction of the conversations.