Legislatative Update & Save the Date…

Below is the latest update from MEMPSA for your reading pleasure. Also, please mark your calendars for our next ADSA meeting to be held

FEBRUARY 1, 2016 at Bryant Middle School, starting at 4 pm

Hope to see you there!

MEMSPA Advocacy Day

The voice of Michigan’s principals is key in these political times. We are holding our winter MEMSPA legislative Advocacy Day on the morning of March 22, 2016. Please let me know if you are able to join us for a morning breakfast briefing, visit with your district’s House and Senate members, and a lunch debrief. We will schedule an appointment for you to meet your state representative and provide you with talking points and format. This is an important time in Michigan’s education reform movement and we need your voice to influence positive reasonable change. Please plan to join us.
RSVP to paul@memspa.org
Consensus Revenue Estimating Conference

State Treasurer Nick Khouri met with the Directors of the Senate and House Fiscal Agencies today to update revenue estimates for both the current state Fiscal Year and upcoming Fiscal Years at the biannual Consensus Revenue Estimating Conference (CREC).

The state General Fund is expected to end Fiscal Year 2015 with a significant year-end balance, though much of that balance will be utilized to cover ongoing spending pressures such as Medicaid caseload adjustments, employee pay raises, inflationary increases and revenue sharing payments, including accelerating personal property tax reimbursement payments to local units of government and school districts. However, much of that year-end balance is due to a “one-time” increase in income tax collections and deferment of Michigan Business Tax (MBT) credit claims to 2016. As a result, the updated revenue projections for the General Fund do not necessarily differ greatly from the past estimates in May, but rather reflect a shift in some revenues to 2015 and corresponding shift in some obligations to 2016. Overall, while the state will have some one-time revenue to fund priorities such as roads or the public health crisis in Flint, most of the year-end lapse in the General Fund will be utilized to backfill 2016 obligations.

Why do General Fund revenues matter to schools? Governor Snyder and the Legislature have increasingly melded both GF and School Aid Fund (SAF) revenues together in recent years, essentially creating a bigger pot of money with somewhat blurred lines as opposed to past practice when SAF revenues strictly supported K-12 schools. While the SAF has always received revenue from the GF, utilizing SAF revenues to supplement other areas of the budget previously funded only with GF (universities and community colleges) was a practice begun in the last year of the Granholm Administration and accelerated significantly under Governor Snyder.

The SAF projected to see less revenue in the current and coming year than expected due to lower sales tax collections, largely from decreasing gas prices. However, cuts are not likely as overall SAF revenues are projected to continue to increase year-over-year, just not as much compared to prior estimates. The FY 2016-2017 pupil count is predicted to continue to decline as well by roughly 9,800 to a total of 1,480,000 compared to 1,494,800 in FY 2015-2016. However, in a bit of good news, that decrease is 5,200 less than expected when compared to last May’s estimate.