Governor Snyder now has the Fiscal Year 2018 budget on his desk with final passage of the spending plan today by the Michigan Senate. State Budget Director Al Pscholka says it marks seven straight years the budget has been done before the end of June.
“Seven for seven is great; now we’ve gotta eight for eight,” said Pscholka. The former state Representative from Stevensville tells WSJM News that getting the budget done early benefits more than just lawmakers and the Snyder administration.
“This sends a great message to people who want to invest in Michigan, this is a great message to our local units of government, our local schools that they can do their budgets and these will be the commitments that the state has made,” Pscholka added.
There was a chance the budget wouldn’t be completed until after lawmakers returned from their summer recess, as Republican leaders kept the administration out of negotiations and wanted the governor to get on board with teacher pension system reforms as part of delivering the budget by the end of June. The more than $56 billion spending plan is a roughly 2% increase over the current fiscal year, and will take effect October 1.
