LANSING – The Michigan House met a deadline to act on some of its originating budgets for the 2009-10 fiscal year by passing five bills Thursday, and knowing that revenues are down for the current fiscal year by as much as $1 billion, the chamber took out the clippers and trimmed $30 million in general fund appropriations.

As members prepared to leave for a two-week break, House Speaker Andy Dillon (D-Redford Twp.) took to the rostrum to thank them for working across the aisle in what he dubbed the “first quarter” of the term.

Over the break, he said a bipartisan, bicameral workgroup will meet with Granholm administration officials to figure out more ways to deal with the sharp decline in state revenues.

He urged his colleagues to go back home and think of some creative ways to fix the budget hole, expressing hopes that both parties can come together “when the chips are down, and they sure are down.”

However, buoyed by federal stimulus dollars, not all of the 2009-10 budgets passed out of the chamber cut spending from the state’s main checkbook.

Republicans offered amendments to cut general fund support in each budget by 5 percent, but those proposals failed to gain traction.

“The fact is that we are knowingly spending more money than we have, and the answer is simple – we need to reduce spending now, and reduce the budget now to reflect state realities, and stop budgeting with rose-colored glasses. There are many lawmakers who want to take the easy way out by using federal stimulus funds or new taxes to fill the budget hole, but the responsible path is to reform government immediately,” said Rep. Chuck Moss (R-Birmingham).

But the GOP didn’t ask for record roll call votes on those amendments or ones to require the stimulus spending be listed separately in the budgets or that expenditures be posted online. Bill Nowling, spokesperson for House Minority Leader Kevin Elsenheimer (R-Bellaire), said Republicans would push for record roll call votes when they know they could get them.

Democrats countered the budgets protect vulnerable citizens and create jobs to get the state’s economy back on track.

In all, the chamber passed the budgets for community colleges (HB 4435 ), higher education (HB 4441 ), K-12 schools (HB 4447 ), and the departments of Education (HB 4438 ) and Corrections (HB 4437 ).

Left undone were budgets for the departments of Environmental Quality (HB 4439 ), Community Health (HB 4436 ) and Natural Resources (HB 4446 ).

NEGATIVE SUPPLEMENTAL: The chamber acted on $30 million worth of general fund cuts through HB 4309 , which was discharged to the floor from the Appropriations Committee. The vote was 104-6, with Democrats dissenting.

Most of the cut is actually a swap of $16.7 million in federal stimulus funds for child support incentive payments that had been covered by general funds. The money is used as a match for more federal child support enforcement dollars.

Another $10 million in general funds are coming from employment and training support services, which has lapsed more than $11 million in the past two fiscal years, according to the House Fiscal Agency.

The supplemental includes another lapse from adoption support services, this time totaling $1 million. That budget item lapsed $2 million in general funds in the last fiscal year.

And another $2.3 million would come from removing half of the spending for the subsidized guardianship program. The program would give payments to permanent, legal guardians who are taking care of kids in foster care, but the program has not been implemented yet.

A $20 million cut dealing with expected reduced caseloads for day care services wasn’t included in the final bill.

K-12: The budget for the state’s K-12 schools does not include the governor’s proposed $59 per-pupil cut, nor does it eliminate some categorical spending the executive budget recommended be reduced.

The budget, which passed on a 107-3 vote, totals $13.3 billion ($40.5 million general fund).

That represents a .7 percentage point cut, or $300,000, in general fund support for the budget. The budget includes $220 million in federal stimulus funding.

As the budget came out of committee, chair Rep. Terry Brown (D-Pigeon) said he was glad to get the bill completed saying, “I feel like a DJ at a hip hop radio station, getting calls from people asking if I know any polka songs.”

Mr. Brown said the goal was to restore the foundation allowance, which would remain at $8,489 (See Gongwer Michigan Report, March 26, 2009).

But during debate in committee, Rep. Michael Lahti (D-Hancock) charged the state is still not putting schools on equal footing by having the amount of state support vary between school districts.

He said the foundation formula, which was set by the school reform measure in 1993 called Proposal A, is antiquated.

And Rep. Kevin Green (R-Wyoming) charged the state should bit support schools that are failing, pointing out Detroit Public Schools as an example. “We’ve been doing things the same way for so long maybe this is the time to doing things so transformational,” he said.

Appropriations chair Rep. George Cushingberry Jr. (D-Detroit) said he agreed on the need for transformation and said the emergency financial manager was working toward that with DPS.

In committee, Republicans attempted to amend the K-12 budget by requiring salary freezes for school employees, as well eliminating payments to declining enrollment schools or the 21st Century Schools program, which is geared toward creating smaller high schools.

Rep. Gail Haines (R-Waterford) said the cuts and salary freeze would save money at a time when, “everyone in Michigan is having to tighten their belts.”

But those proposals failed to get support, as Democrats argued the wage provision would go against collective bargaining agreements between school boards and employees.

Democrats did amend the bill to restore some categorical funding for schools with negative fund balances, as well as grandfather in programs schools run outside of their district boundaries (mostly for adult education).

Schools that consolidate with other districts in deficit would also be given priority to a $50 per-pupil consolidation incentive under another Democratic amendment in the bill.

Moss said he didn’t like the idea of giving schools with money problems priority in receiving more funding if they consolidated, but the amendment sponsor, Rep. Dudley Spade (D-Franklin Twp.) said the measure would give school districts that aren’t facing a deficit incentive to merge with a district that is.

Another amendment allowing schools in the Upper Peninsula to count students training at the Olympic center toward their per-pupil count was also adopted.

EDUCATION: The budget for the department was amended on the floor to require the state superintendent of public instruction to report back to the Legislature on pupil membership fraud on whether districts are counting students who don’t actually remain in the district for an entire school year.

Cushingberry said that has been the case with some Detroit students attending other schools and then coming back to DPS, while Mr. Spade said some students have been bused in from juvenile facilities where they are receiving treatment in order to be included in the pupil count days.

The budget, passed on a 74-36 vote, totals $120.5 million ($26.7 million general fund). That represents a 254.9 percent increase in general funds compared to the current fiscal year, mainly because the Library of Michigan and library functions from the Department of History, Arts and Libraries are transferred to DOE.

But an amendment added to the budget states it’s the intent of the Legislature that all HAL functions be condensed into one department, not spread out as the gove