LANSING – Saying Michigan has not faced up to the financial necessity of fixing its overall budget and tax structure, Governor Rick Snyder unveiled the most sweeping overall changes to the state’s fiscal and revenue structure in decades.

The measures proposed to the more than $46 billion budget were hard and would be difficult to implement, Snyder acknowledged, and would require sacrifice. But he insisted these were the necessary steps to take to both put the state on a sound footing and set it in a position to better compete for economic development.

“Today is a day that should have taken place in the 1980s. Today is a day that should have taken place in the 1990s. Today is a day that should have taken place in the 2000s. Today is a day to build for Michigan’s future,” he told a joint meeting of the House and Senate appropriations committees and tax committees. “From a personal perspective, these were tough calls to make. … But I can tell you with confidence, with conviction, by making these sacrifices, we can all win in the long-term.”

And in calling for all residents in the state to share in the sacrifices the state would have to endure, Snyder said he would take a salary for 2011 of $1 (which he will accomplish by reimbursing all but $1 of his $159,300 state appropriated salary. Snyder is a millionaire venture capitalist.) The budget would also enact total cuts of $1.5 billion, lawmakers were told.

The proposal that would cut business taxes significantly while raising revenues through the personal income tax by eliminating several exemptions, deductions and credits, as well as attempt to restructure the basic nature of the state’s total $46 billion budget, won support from business groups and Republicans, but was sharply criticized by Democrats, school groups, local governments and organizations worried about the protection of the poor.

Eric Schneidewind, president of the Michigan AARP, for example, said the budget “declares war” on Michigan’s elderly with it provisions for taxing pensions and eliminating the earned income tax credit along with proposing some service cuts.

And Rep. Richard LeBlanc (D-Westland) said on Facebook the proposal was every bit the “atomic bomb” Lt. Governor Brian Calley had promised it would be.

The outlines also are sure to set up a series of legal arguments on whether some of the proposals made by Snyder, such as taxing public pensions or using monies in the School Aid Fund for the state’s universities and community colleges, run afoul of the Constitution.

Structurally, the budget differs from previous budgets in two primary ways: it calls for a two-year spending plan (though technically only one year would be enacted), and it reduces the number of budget bills down to two, one for general government and one for education.

Within the education proposal, Snyder makes a further major change – that he said was consistent with his proposal to focus on P-20, in other words from pre-school to beyond college – by putting K-12 schools, community colleges and the state’s four-year universities together. That budget bill would also include general fund and School Aid Fund monies.

BY THE NUMBERS: For 2011-12, the entire budget would total $46.6 billion, $8.1 billion in general funds.

State restricted funds would total $18.2 billion, of which the School Aid Fund would total $10.1 billion.

Federal monies would total $19 billion with funds for Medicaid and other health programs totaling nearly $8.8 billion.

The entire state budget for 2012-13, when including state worker concessions of $180 million and $200 million allocated to retiree healthcare, totals $47.3 billion.

Of that, general fund monies total $8.47 billion. State restricted funds total $18.36 billion (and of that the SAF is the largest amount at $10.14 billion).

Federal funds total $19.2 billion, and of that funds for Medicaid and other health care programs total $8.97 billion.

‘SIMPLE, FAIR AND EFFICIENT’: Appearing before the House and Senate appropriations and tax committees, Snyder, as well as Calley and Budget Director John Nixon, said the decisions reflected in the budget and tax documents were hard, but ended up in a “simple, fair and efficient” plan. That phrase was used several times by the three men to describe the proposal.

Also a popular phrase among them was “kicking the can down the road,” in saying that was what the state had done for years and what this proposal would not.

Nixon said he did not want to criticize actions that had come before, but he did say the state had taken easy actions to resolve its ongoing its budget problems, which likely would come as a surprise to many legislators who had struggled through budget and revenue issues in the past decade.

Snyder said Michigan residents wanted “prudent fiscal management. That hasn’t happened for decades.” The budget will also help prevent ongoing future shortfalls that will fall on the next generations, he said.

Overall, Snyder said the proposal would enact the “value for money” concept he had promised during the campaign.

It was a plan that could help take Michigan down the road towards being one of the most competitive states in the nation, Snyder said. And while the proposals listed would be difficult to accomplish, he said he took great pride in the proposals his administration was presenting.

Even so, Calley told the lawmakers that while the proposed changes to the business tax would “put Michigan in awesome position,” the state would not be in a top 10 position relative to the other states unless it enacted other changes. He did not list what those changes would need to be.

Nixon also recognized that the budget and tax proposals may not be enacted completely, but he said if this proposal were not enacted, so long as a budget enacted “on these principles were passed”, Michigan would be in one of the strongest positions.

One principle is to adopt “best practices,” Snyder and the others said, and that concept they encouraged other governments to do as well.

To several questions on whether the cuts in school aid and revenue sharing would drive some municipalities and school districts into insolvency, Nixon said that should not happen if the local governments adopt best practices.

While not outlining what best practices would be, Nixon several times referred to changing the cost of health insurance. If school districts and local governments switched to an 80/20 split on health care (with the workers paying 20 percent of the insurance premium), the localities would recoup much of the cuts the state is preparing to enact.

Summer Minnick of the Michigan Municipal League told reporters after the presentation that her members were willing to work with Snyder on best practices, but they had no idea what best practices were to include.

While Snyder and the others did not delve into detail on most the proposals, one principle Snyder felt strongly about was the two-year nature of the budget. The proposal would provide spending specifics for the 2011-12 fiscal year and use the 2012-13 component for planning.

That will help the state in its efforts to be more competitive with other states as well as build towards reaching other goals in areas like education, he said.

REPUBLICANS WARM, DEMOCRATS CRITICAL: One of the most enthusiastic legislative supporters of the proposal was Sen. John Pappageorge (R-Troy), but even he said it failed to deal with what he thought was a critical component: setting goals. Setting actual goals disciplines the state’s spending, Pappageorge said.

House Speaker Jase Bolger (R-Marshall) said Snyder’s budget and tax proposals were “very bold and forward looking.”

“There will not be easy solutions,” Bolger said, but lawmakers are prepared to share in the sacrifice.

While legislators took a 10 percent pay cut this year, B