LANSING – After years of having to revise revenue estimates downward to reflect worse than expected economic conditions, the Michigan House Fiscal Agency had some good news Monday: revenues for the state’s general fund for both the 2004 and 2005 fiscal years are higher than initially forecast.
The bad news is that revenues for the school aid fund are slightly lower than expected although by relatively small numbers.
The figures are what the House Fiscal Agency will submit at Tuesday’s revenue estimating conference where the House group, Senate Fiscal Agency and Department of Treasury will agree on a revenue forecast upon which lawmakers and Gov. Jennifer Granholm will base budgets.
For the current year, the general fund estimate is up $57.7 million from the January conference. And the general fund estimate for 2004-05 is up $67.7 million from January, according to the HFA.
The school aid estimate was revised downward by $12.1 million for the current year and $21.6 million for 2004-05.
It was unclear from the House Fiscal Agency report how significant a shortfall exists for the current year, but it should mean a smaller deficit than the $161 million forecast by the Senate Fiscal Agency in the general and school aid funds combined. It also would mean that revenues for the 2004-05 budget are largely as expected when Granholm made her budget recommendation in February.
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