LANSING, MI (WHTC) - The Legislature formally received the proposed fiscal 2014 state budget from Governor Snyder, Lieutenant Governor Calley and Budget Director Nixon this morning. The 50.9 billion-dollar spending plan is nearly four percent higher than this year’s financial blueprint, and to nobody’s surprise, it has the 1.2 billion-dollar infrastructure improvement plan mentioned in last month’s State of the State Address that would hike vehicle registration fees and change the way the state takes in fuel taxes. Mr. Snyder also proposed two-percent increases in K-12 school funding, with a similar hike for colleges and universities, in an effort to streamline public education, and he wants to expand Medicaid to cover the estimated 470 thousand low-income residents in Michigan who are under the 133 percent of federal poverty limit line.
Holland’s Joe Haveman, chair of the House Appropriations Committee, will be among the state lawmakers who will get a first crack at sifting through the Snyder Administration’s spending plan, with a goal of having a finalized budget on the Governor’s desk by June 1st.