LANSING – School aid payments went out Tuesday as scheduled, but Gov. Jennifer Granholm cut $54 million and said more cuts, or more revenues, will be needed to bring the budget into balance.

Granholm urged quick legislative action to cure the remaining shortfall in the budget, which she said could reach $264 million.

“Our schools deserve sufficient funding to fulfill the critical mission we have given them and they deserve an honest budget that allows them to make necessary adjustments in their own spending,” she said. “Enrolled House Bill 4447, as presented to me, gives them neither.”

And she said it would only be a “matter of weeks” before schools will be in crisis if the Legislature does not make further changes to the budget.

The budget as signed totals $12.9 billion ($38.1 million general fund), an overall 2.9 percent cut from last year’s appropriations. The budget includes a cut of $165 per student to the foundation grant, but Granholm said that could expand if she has to issue pro-rata cuts later in the year to balance the budget.

Among the likely more controversial, and the largest, of her line-item vetoes in HB 4447 is section 20j, which provided supplemental funding for some of the state’s wealthiest districts. The line provided $51.5 million to those districts to soften earlier funding reductions as the Proposal A changes worked to reduce the spending difference between highest and lowest districts.

Some 40 districts will be affected by the move, the largest being Livonia which will lose $4.922 million with the veto. The Dearborn school district will also lose $4.921 million. Also affected is the East Lansing district, where Granholm’s children go to school, which will lose more than $1 million.

Another $1.6 million comes from elimination of secondary prevention services.

Granholm also cut advanced and accelerated programs ($285,000), cultural experiences grants ($100,000), 21st Century Community Learning Center funds ($50,000), vocational education funding for one ISD ($388,700), and a pre-college engineering program in the Kalamazoo area ($75,000).

If in making the veto, Granholm hoped to push Republicans to vote for revenues, Matt Marsden, spokesperson for Senate Majority Leader Mike Bishop (R-Rochester), said that would not happen. He said Bishop told Granholm last week that any funds she vetoes would be “seen as additional cuts by the governor to reduce the size of government.”

Senate Republicans have no intent to restore funding to make up for those vetoes, Marsden said.

Granholm also signed SB 95 , which was a supplemental budget for the 2008-09 fiscal year.

This story was provided by Gongwer News Service. To subscribe, click on Gongwer.Com

a>>