2/8/13 - Gov. Snyder unveiled an ambitious 2013-14 budget plan Thursday that won support from some business and legislative leaders but left many others less than pleased.
Snyder's budget would hike the cost of gas, vehicle registrations, and hunting and fishing licenses, while pledging improvements to the state's roads and wildlife areas and expanding Medicaid coverage and early childhood education. A major piece includes a call to raise the state gas tax from 19 cents a gallon to 33 cents and increase vehicle registration fees to fix ailing roads and bridges. Snyder is also proposing to give public schools, universities and community colleges 2 percent more funding in the next school year. K-12 districts that now get the minimum amount of aid would receive $34 more per student this fall. Genoa Township Republican State Representative Bill Rogers chairs the House school aid subcommittee. He said it was a welcome surprise. "It's hard to explain. It doesn't look it, it's not fancy, but the reality is it is real dollars back in the classroom." However, Judy Daubenmeir, who chairs the Livingston County Democratic Party, described the $34 per pupil increase for the stateâs lowest paid districts as âa pittance,â as is the 2 percent increase in higher education funding. Daubenmeir says Snyder has cut higher education funding more than 11 percent since taking office, which she says had made college less affordable for residents. Snyder is also taking criticism from those in his own party for the budget, as some conservative lawmakers said it's a mistake to expand Medicaid to include about 470,000 more uninsured low-income people under the Affordable Care Act. Both the House and Senate have set a deadline of June 1 to finish approving the budgets. If they make that deadline, it will be the third year in a row that the Legislature has finished the fiscal task by the beginning of summer. (JK)
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