LANSING – A record-breaking $76 billion state budget, with $15.3 billion coming from the General Fund, rolled out of a House-Senate conference committee early Friday morning and through both chambers of the Legislature – fueled by leftover emergency federal dollars and better-than-expected income and sales tax revenues.
Around $7 billion ($3.8 General Fund, $3.2 billion School Aid) is being left on the balance sheet, according to Budget Director Chris Harkins. The House wants an income tax cut. The Senate wants a gas tax holiday. The Governor wants targeted tax cuts for seniors and the low income folks, but she’d also like more money put into the new economic development fund.
Those discussions are slated to continue later this summer, but could stretch through Lame Duck.
“This is a big deal. This is a big day for the state of Michigan. A lot went into this. I’m really proud of where we’re at,” said House Appropriations Committee Chair Thomas Albert (R-Lowell) shortly before HB 5783 moved out of a joint House-Senate conference committee at 12:26 a.m.
HB 5783 passed unanimously in the Senate at 2:21 a.m. Afterward, Senate Appropriations Chair Jim Stamas (R-Midland) told the media that the most challenging part of trying to manage a historic amount of money was “the historic amount of money” itself.
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