MACKINAC ISLAND – Michigan’s new budget has put the state in a better position fiscally than many other states, Budget Director John Nixon said, and after a decade of struggling with budgets Michigan now finds other states contacting it to see how it constructed its 2011-12 budget.

Nixon, who will join Governor Rick Snyder in New York City to meet with Wall Street rating agencies on improving the state’s bond rating, said he has also heard from at least one agency that “he was hearing good things from Michigan.”

The state’s fiscal situation should result in an improvement in the state’s overall rating, Nixon said, though he acknowledged it was unlikely the state would see a return to a AAA rating.

The rating agencies and other states have all worried about the “cliff,” Nixon said, that all states will face when the federal stimulus money that was allocated in 2009 runs out.

Because the budget the Legislature has sent to Governor Rick Snyder does not include any one-time funding gimmicks, is structurally balanced and puts money into the state’s Budget Stabilization Fund and also puts money into meeting the state’s future retiree health care costs, other states have been in contact with Nixon to talk about how the state was able to accomplish this.

In large part, Nixon said many of these contacts come through his presidency of the National Association of State Budget Officers.

But Michigan has undertaken tough decisions in its budget that many other states have yet to tackle, he said.

The budget also puts Michigan in an excellent position to adjust in the 2012-13 fiscal year if fiscal matters improve further. “If next year there is growth, true growth, then we can look at our priorities, we can look at our must-haves and our nice-to-haves and make adjustments,” he said.

If, as some on Wall Street now worry, the nation goes into a double-dip recession, Nixon said the budget should make the state better prepared. “We’ll just have to go back and re-examine everything,” he said, though the only options to handle the budget would be to make more cuts or raise taxes.

One thing the administration will be “committed to,” Nixon said, is “a structurally balanced budget. I’d rather be where we are if there’s a double-dip than a lot of other states.”

Nixon also said the state could be helped fiscally if HB 4701 , introduced Tuesday by Rep. Bill Rogers (R-Brighton) and would make major changes to the state employees pension system, became law.

While not saying the administration wants to see quick action on the legislation, and not projecting how much money it could save the state by having more contributions from workers into their pensions, Nixon said it would be better for the state overall for the bill to become law.

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