How are our youngest Michiganders represented in the state budget? On Friday, Michigan lawmakers made significant progress in creating the next state budget at the May Consensus Revenue Estimating Conference, which helps lawmakers better understand how much funding is available to spend in the next fiscal year's budget.

Conference officials confirmed that revenues for the next fiscal year are about $1.8 million lower than January's estimation that the Governor built her budget on. Policymakers have significantly fewer funds to work with as they finalize the budget, making it critical for early childhood advocates to act now.

Think Babies Michigan, along with our many coalition members, have been working hard to advocate on behalf of young children and their families to ensure they are a priority in these budget negotiations. 

Now is the time to act! Read on for several action alerts from Think Babies Michigan partners to help guide your advocacy efforts, along with Think Babies Michigan resources to fill you in.

1 Oppose Section 32e of the School Aid Senate budget proposal for district-run pre-K programs. If adopted, Section 32e would have many unintended consequences for children, families, and the stability of the mixed delivery child care system. Section 32e would cause severe negative impacts on community-based, small business child care programs and their ability to stay open serving families.

2 Build on the Governor’s proposal for a refundable Early Childhood Educator (ECE) Income Tax Credit by increasing the tax credits to $3,000-9,000 and expanding it to all ECE staff. In her proposal, the Governor recommends a $1,000-3,000 income tax credit for child care, afterschool, and preschool teachers. While this is a step in the right direction, further expansion of the tax credit proposal would help strengthen Michigan’s early childhood workforce, build childcare supply, and provide high-quality early childhood education to our state’s youngest.

3 Support the Governor and Legislature’s recommendations for increased funding for the Healthy Moms, Healthy Babies Initiative. Increased funding for the Healthy Moms, Healthy Babies initiative would fund Regional Perinatal Quality Collaboratives and CenteringPregnancy site support. This funding would also remove the five-year waiting period for Medicaid eligibility for immigrant children and pregnant women. 

4 Increase Early On (54d) funding by $7.1 million, bringing total funding to $28.35 million. The Governor and Legislature each proposed a minimal increase of about $1 million for Early On, Michigan's early intervention program for infants and toddlers with developmental delays or disabilities.

5 Increase Great Start Collaborative (32p) funding by $18 million, bringing total funding to $31.9 million. The Governor has recommended a $7.5 million increase, while the House proposed a $12.5 million increase, and the Senate proposed flat funding at $10.9 million. Great Start Collaboratives work to build a collaboration of local early childhood infrastructure and services across the state.