The Latest: Senate lacks support for Detroit schools plan

LANSING, Mich. – The Latest on the Michigan Senate’s consideration of a bailout and restructuring of Detroit’s school district (all times local):

4:10 p.m.

The Michigan Senate is adjourning for the day without enough support for a $617 million bailout of Detroit’s debt-ridden school district.

Democrats don’t support the package that cleared the House last week. And majority Republicans cannot yet find enough votes solely within the GOP for the restructuring plan.

Senators are planning for long days Wednesday and Thursday to continue considering the Detroit package and to take up a state budget plan.

Republican Senate Majority Leader Arlan Meekhof said Tuesday that the Detroit bills are “a very difficult thing for people to understand and vote for.”

The state-managed district is at risk of running of money at the end of the month. Republican Gov. Rick Snyder says doing nothing could result in the state being liable for billions of dollars of debt is the district goes bankruptcy.

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1:35 p.m.

A new legislative analysis says a proposed $617 million bailout of Detroit’s debt-ridden school district may be $88 million short of what’s needed.

The legislation is up for a potential vote in the Republican-led Senate Tuesday, but the Senate Fiscal Agency report could complicate already difficult efforts to send the bills to Gov. Rick Snyder.

The nonpartisan Senate Fiscal Agency says the package approved by the GOP-controlled House last week would offset the majority of costs, “but likely not all of the costs.” It says the state Treasury Department has estimated that one version of a repayment scenario would cost $705 million, leaving future lawmakers to determine how to cover the difference.

The analysis stressed that it is an estimate, because interest costs would depend on various factors.

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