Michigan is expected to report that it will collect roughly $500 million in surplus revenue when fiscal officials release updated revenue projections on May 16.
Republican Gov. Rick Snyder’s current budget would cut the K-12 budget by $470 per pupil, and top Democrats Monday began calling for the GOP-controlled Legislature to restore the cuts with the new money.
Snyde is pushing lawmakers to finish crafting a fiscal 2012 budget by May 30, months ahead of the Sept. 30 end of the state’s fiscal year. He said lawmakers should wait until the revenue estimating conference releases figures before deciding how to spend the unexpected money.
“The governor believes it’s critical to be fiscally prudent and truly address our structural deficit once and for all and avoid the one-time fixes of the past that have only added to the economic challenges Michigan faces,” Snyder spokesman Sara Wurfel was quoted as saying in a Detroit News article Monday.
Wurfel added that Michigan’s rainy-day fund only has enough money to cover government operations for 30 minutes.
The state treasurer and fiscal agencies from the Senate and House each craft their own revenue estimates, then get together and reconcile them before releasing them to legislators, who will use the projections to draft a final 2012 budget.
