Now that Michigan lawmakers have resolved the budget deficit faced by the state for the current fiscal year, they’ve set their sights on the next fiscal year. State Representative Beth Griffin tells WSJM News when the pandemic struck, work on the next budget was disrupted.
“We had already started the budget cycle, and for lack of a better word, had done our first draft of the budget,” Griffin said. “Then due to the shutdown, all of that was kind of frozen of time, and what we’re doing now is picking that back up, and we have to adjust,of course, based on a revenue estimating conference that will happen in mid-August.”
It’s expected COVID will cause a deficit for next fiscal year in the billions of dollars. It’s possible the coronavirus relief package Congress is working on could help states deal with those shortfalls. Griffin says state lawmakers will manage, and do all they can to protect funding for K-12 schools.
