Appropriations committee cuts higher‑education spending and caps administrative use of state funds

The Appropriations Committee received an overview of higher education and community college budgets from the subcommittee presentation. Subcommittee chair Representative Markkanen (with House Fiscal staff) said the house reduced the higher education allocation to roughly $2.1 billion, a reduction of about 7.5% from the executive recommendation. The presentation listed several major moves: conversion of one-time funding to ongoing for select facilities work, reductions in certain university line items (noted as substantial percentage reductions in University of Michigan and Michigan State University allocations in the presented summary), and policy boilerplate imposing a 10% cap on the use of state funds for administration at public universities and community colleges.

Representative Morgan moved an amendment to stop a proposed 62.5% cut for the University of Michigan and Michigan State University and to restore full funding; that amendment was defeated on a recorded roll call. Committee members asked about how tuition restraints, transfer language, and the administration‑cap boilerplate would affect local institutions; HFA staff said the house version uses actual spending and that many items are negotiable in conference.

On community colleges, the house budget aligned funding to recent actuals and proposed an administrative cap; members raised concerns about whether the definition of "administration" could reach counselors or other essential non‑instructional roles. HFA explained the cap targets top administration and is negotiable in future deliberations.

Ending: Committee reported the omnibus bills after this and other subcommittee presentations; higher-education changes will be subject to conference negotiations and further review.