I’ll do my best to give you regular updates about our current budget situation. If we want you to take action, we will communicate that through your CED. It’s important that we deal in fact and stop wild rumors and speculation in their tracks. You have my word that I will always give you as much information as I can on a regular basis. Here’s what we know so far:
On Friday October 16, Michigan State University received its October payment as part of the State’s temporary continuation budget. This payment was expected to be 1/12th of the base funding allocation for MSU, MAES, and MSUE (i.e. one month’s payment). However, the electronic transfer was less than anticipated, and appears to not include funding for MAES and MSUE. University staff called the State Budget Office, Office of Management and Budget and contacted legislators asking what happened to this funding. We have not yet received a clear explanation for the shortage. This raises the question of whether Governor Granholm will exercise her line item veto power and not approve the MAES and MSUE budgets.
In the next week, we expect one of two things to occur:
1. Gov. Granholm will sign the proposed higher education allocation and our focus can return to restoring our General Fund appropriation that was supplanted this year with stimulus funding (44 percent), or
2. the governor will exercise her line-item veto power and eliminate funding for MSU Extension and the MAES.
For more information, log on to the portal and visit Strategic Communications. If you’d like to share information with stakeholders, please refer them to the information that is publicly available on the ANR Communications budget impacts page.
