Host: Stephan Currie
Guests: Deena Bosworth and Samantha Gibson of MAC
Topics: With the Legislature back from spring break, attention in Lansing has turned to budgets, reports MAC’s Podcast 83 in a new episode.
“We're starting to see some movement on budgets, in a significantly earlier time frame, I would say, than last year,” said host Stephan Currie, “which, fingers crossed, is a good sign to getting a budget agreement done maybe earlier than last year (when the budget work extended into October).”
“Steve, I love your optimism,” replied Deena Bosworth, MAC’s governmental affairs director.
“They're both starting to move budgets for fiscal 2027 already in April, but that's prior to the May Consensus Revenue Estimating Conference (on May 15),” she continued. “So, do they know how much money they have? I don't think that they do. …
“But for us, it's an increase in statutory revenue sharing (of $19.8 million). It's an increase in the Public Safety Trust Fund dollars (of $2.5 million), which we're very happy to see … in a year where we were expecting flat or perhaps even cuts. We're happy to see that they're prioritizing local governments in the House.
“But I'm not quite sure how long that's going to last. They still have to go through the Consensus Revenue Estimating Conference, and they've got to negotiate with the Senate,” Bosworth explained.
“On the Senate side, I am anticipating a flat revenue sharing recommendation … But what I have been told and assured is that they're going to vote on our Revenue Sharing Trust Fund bills, Senate Bills 559-561.
“And what those bills do is tie our statutory revenue sharing to a percentage of the state sales tax. If the state sales tax goes up, for example this year, we expect it to go up by 10 percent, and our revenue sharing will go up by 10 percent,” she said.
See video versions of all Podcast 83 episodes on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/@michiganassociationofcount2606
Visit the Podcast 83 page at www.micounties.org
