The Latest: Budget panel OKs $60-120 boost in per-pupil aid

LANSING, Mich. – The Latest on Michigan lawmakers’ consideration of the state budget (all times local):

4:20 p.m.

Michigan schools would receive an additional $60 to $120 in per-student state funding under an education budget advancing in the Legislature.

Lower-funded districts would get a bigger boost and better-funded districts a smaller increase.

A legislative conference committee approved the plan Thursday after working out differences between the House and Senate.

The school aid budget would be $14.3 billion, about 1 per cent more than in the current fiscal year. There would be a sizable increase in funding for schools with at-risk students per Gov. Rick Snyder’s request.

Changes could be made since Snyder is involved in the budget again after Republican legislative leaders excluded him due to a dispute over teacher pensions.

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1:55 p.m.

A Michigan panel has approved a $15 million cut to environmental cleanup spending as work continues to finalize the state budget.

The Republican-led conference committee Thursday rejected Gov. Rick Snyder’s request to shift $15 million from a fund used to address leaking fuel tanks and instead clean up polluted sites. Snyder made the proposal because Michigan has spent almost all of its money raised from bonds authorized by a 1998 ballot measure.

The Department of Environmental Quality’s overall budget would be cut $9.7 million, or nearly 2 per cent, under the bill negotiated by lawmakers without Snyder’s input. General fund spending would drop 7 per cent.

Environmental groups call the cuts “drastic” at a time the Trump administration is proposing federal cuts. But the panel chair says it’s a “good budget.”