The Michigan House of Representatives passed a bill Wednesday pushing for over $1 billion in higher education funding to go to the state’s top three research universities.
The bill designates MSU to receive about $370 million from the state, while the University of Michigan’s Ann Arbor campus would receive about $343 million and Wayne State University about $231 million.
“That was more than the governor recommended, but we believe in order to help grow our economy in Michigan we need to start investing much more in our state’s colleges,” said Greg Bird, spokesman for House Speaker Andy Dillon, D-Redford.
The House decided to separate MSU, U-M and Wayne State from the state’s 12 other universities because of their research contributions to Michigan.
“We felt it was critical to recognize the economic contribution that the three research universities in the state make,” Bird said. “I think by doing so — by separating them — and placing them in their own appropriations bill makes that recognition.”
The 12 other state universities are designated to receive about $957 million according to the separate bill that also was passed.
“The higher education budgets with the split were $102,962,600 more than the executive recommendation from the governor,” said Phyllis Washburn, spokeswoman for House Minority Leader Craig DeRoche, R-Novi.
“Education is a top priority for our caucus,” Washburn said. “However, it was pretty exuberant. We can’t spend money we don’t have, though we value education. It’s called a budget.”
The split bills also proved a point of contention for some House members who felt the state was creating a hierarchy among the universities.
“Craig thought it should be one bill because there are 15 universities in the state and we shouldn’t be giving a student incentive to go to one college over another,” Washburn said. “All 15 universities in Michigan do contribute to local economies and research in general.”
However, each of the 12 smaller universities did receive a significant increase from the current year level, Bird said.
While it may still be too early to tell, the House bill would have a significant impact on next semester’s tuition rates at MSU.
“We can’t speculate at this time what the final appropriation will be for the university,” said Steve Webster, MSU vice president for governmental affairs. “If the appropriations level that is recommended by the House becomes law, then more than likely the Board of Trustees would look to reduce tuition in the next semester. But we need to wait to see what the final appropriations bill looks like.”
Ashley A. Smith can be reached at smithas7@msu.edu.
Support student media! Please consider donating to The State News and help fund the future of journalism.
