The final framework reduces the state budget from $84 billion to $80 billion while increasing road funding by about $2 billion. This marks the first reduction in year-over-year spending since 2011, the lawmakers said. A key component of the budget is a new 24% wholesale marijuana tax.

In a news release, the four U.P. representatives and Sen. Ed McBroom, R-Waucedah Township, offered budget details and comments.

Fiscal experts at the Legislature predict a very difficult financial picture coming to the state next year, McBroom said. Tightening the belt now and getting road funding into a secure position will make next year’s budget easier to manage, he said.

Some local governments, however, will feel the biggest pinch, as many of them will face static state support or cuts in the budget.

Greg Markkanen

“Various parts of our government, state and local, are having to make do with less in order to see roads be taken seriously,” McBroom said. “Better road funding, especially to our local road agencies, will hopefully help alleviate some of that pressure by reducing what local governments and residents have to spend out of their own budgets for road and vehicle repairs.”

The final road funding plan made use of existing revenue found through budget reforms, as well as increases in the marijuana tax and a slower implementation of corporate tax reductions. It also includes a major restructuring of the taxes paid at the gas pump by shifting current taxes paid at the pump that do not go to roads to funding roads.

“People believe the taxes at the pump should go to roads,” said state Rep. Karl Bohnak, R-Deerton. “This generational change should have been done 50 years ago. This plan also increases available funds for our cities and our counties rather than directing them all to the state. Additionally, it dramatically increases funding for our bridges, which is desperately needed.”

As reported by Bridge Michigan, the budget will cut funding for more than 1,700 full-time equivalent state government employees. Much of that comes from cutting vacant positions, including funding for 870 jobs in the Department of Health and Human Services, 373 jobs in the Department of Corrections and 243 state police post operation positions, according to a nonpartisan House Fiscal Agency analysis.

“It is remarkable how a long, deep inspection of the state’s spending showed us just why the budget has ballooned from under $40 billion to over $80 billion in just 15 years,” said Rep. Greg Markkanen, R-Hancock. “Departments had funds for thousands of employees who were never hired and leases for buildings no one uses. It was time to hold them accountable and use the tax dollars for road funding.”

Karl Bohnak

Some other highlights of the budget include a continuation of the school breakfast and lunch programs, increases to local bus and transit authorities, increases to per-pupil funding for schools, dedicated transportation funding for rural districts, and funding for community arts. Not included, the lawmakers emphasized, are increased hunting and fishing license fees.

Among the specific allocations for U.P. communities:

— Menominee Public Schools will receive nearly $5 million to assist with repairs due to flood and asbestos damage.

— Mid Peninsula schools in Rock will receive $245,000 to assist with essential HVAC work.

— Ishpeming will receive nearly $1 million for a fire truck replacement.

State Rep. Dave Prestin

— Marquette County will receive $3 million for repairs and upgrades to the industrial sites at Sawyer.

— Mackinac County will receive a portion of $10 million for ice storm damages.

“This has been a very dynamic and challenging budget,” said state Rep. Dave Prestin, R-Cedar River. “The House and governor were determined to get real funding for roads. The House believed it could be done without increasing taxes but by stripping government waste. Our efforts showed it was possible by fighting ghost employees, department slush funds, empty buildings and tightening general spending.”

“This is the toughest and most thorough budget effort I have ever seen in Lansing,” McBroom said. “While it required letting many of the local projects legislators can obtain to help their communities go and getting a handle on road funding, eliminating so much state wasteful spending and planning for future constraints took determination and discipline.”

A key item removed from the budget was $50 million to aid Highland Copper Co.’s efforts to open a $450 million mine. These funds were to match another $50 million put up by Highland Copper to improve public roads, water, electrical and broadband in Wakefield Township. Efforts to secure that funding will continue, the lawmakers said.

“The intensity of the budget process allowed us so many opportunities to discuss this key project with our colleagues and the executive branch,” Markkanen and McBroom said. “Support is increasing, and we are closer than ever to obtaining the final votes of support to see this project kicked into high gear for the benefit of all the U.P., particularly the west end.”

Several lapsed funding issues, such as unspent Father’s Day flood dollars in Baraga County and the dollars Aspirus Health did not take for its birthing center being transferred to Portage Health System, are on the lawmakers’ immediate to-do list. Energy bills sponsored by Bohnak and Prestin are awaiting action by the Michigan Senate.

“Getting serious about road funding and cuts to wasteful spending made crafting this budget look historically different from past years,” said Rep. Parker Fairbairn, R-Harbor Springs. “Despite that, the U.P. team was successful in obtaining or restoring some key funding, such as reconstruction from the huge spring ice storm and record per-student funding for our schools.”

The budget includes a record $10,050 in per-pupil funding for Michigan schools, up from $9,608 this year.

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Jim Anderson can be reached at 906-774-2772, ext. 85226, or janderson@ironmountaindailynews.com.