State Rep. Pettalia updates county on state budget news
by Angie Asam-Staff Writer
State representative Peter Pettalia of the 106th district appeared at the Presque Isle County Board of Commissioners last Wednesday and updated the commissioners on several key items from the state budget.
“What I am trying to do is get to all the counties in the district to share what’s happening in Lansing before we went on break,” said Pettalia.
Pettalia started by telling the board that revenue sharing for counties is fully funded this year. “We would like to say that we’re magic and we can get all this money back to you but the fact of the matter is the economy in Michigan is improving,” he said.
Pettalia said more money is coming into the state in the form of sales tax revenue and more income being taxed, meaning more people are working and those that are working are making more money.
“We passed a budget this year at $53.2 billion. When I was elected in 2010 the budget was $43 billion. There’s no magic numbers here. The fact of the matter is that Michigan’s economy is improving,” said Pettalia.
REVENUE HAS also improved for school districts under the new budget. Pettalia said that districts are going to be receiving a minimum of $175 per pupil with a chance for an additional $75 per pupil through best practices incentives. “I think this is a really good thing for us in northern Michigan. We are also doing like we did last year and putting $329 per pupil directly into the unfunded liability pool for teacher’s pensions,” said Pettalia. Teacher’s pensions are dangerously under funded and Pettalia said if they aren’t taken care of when teachers start retiring schools will struggle again.
The Chinook, a Department of Natural Resources (DNR) research vessel is being fully funded this year as well. Pettalia said $2 million is going to the replacement of that vessel with money from the DNR general fund, money from the license fee restructuring and private funding.
ROAD FUNDING was one thing Pettalia was disappointed with in the budget. “I sit on transportation. We put a very good comprehensive plan together to fund roads. Our proposal, which passed the house with 107 votes, brought in about $456 million plus $268 million from the general fund. That was more money than they could spend on roads this year; there are not enough projects to spend that money. It went over to the senate and the lobbyists got greedy, they tried to hit a homerun and ended up with nothing. We’re still working to get something done before November and I think we will,” said Pettalia.
Pettalia also discussed the Pure Michigan campaign that is being funded at $31 million this year as opposed to the $25 million it was funded at a year ago. Michigan is partnering with the other Great Lakes states to advertise overseas. Michigan is also spending $2 million of that budget to advertise in Toronto.
In addition Pettalia touched on the state bailing out Detroit. “Detroit is a part of Michigan and a part of
The natural resources trust fund has more money to give out in grants this year than it ever has. Pettalia encouraged the county to apply for grants even if they don’t receive them.
CHAIRMAN CARL Altman then proposed a comment on the people v. Cunningham supreme court case that took away courts’ rights to impose costs that are not provided for by statute, 89th District Court Judge Maria Barton had presented the board with that information at a meeting two weeks ago.
“That was a terrible verdict that came down without any thought given to how it would affect local entities. I will fight with you and for you on that one,” said Pettalia.