LANSING — Rep. Matt Gillard, D-Alpena, will chair the subcommittee that determines public school funding during his final term in the House and said he plans to use the new post to improve school funding, in spite of the state’s current economic climate.

“I’m fully aware of the challenges that we are facing as a state, with the budget situation we’re involved in,” said Gillard, who now heads the House School Aid Appropriations Subcommittee.

That situation includes an estimated $800 million deficit for the fiscal year ending Sept. 30. The river of red ink is expected to flow deeper into the next year.

“Whenever you’re talking about a budget deficit of that magnitude, there’s obvious challenges before us,” Gillard said.

If the state does not generate enough revenue to meet the school aid budget, districts will have to make mid-year budget cuts.

“That’s a very controversial issue right now because the school districts are in the middle of their operating year and they’ve budgeted based on X amount of dollars coming in from the state. Now if we pull that money back at this point, that’s especially difficult for those local school districts to deal with,” Gillard said.

Superintendents of the Crawford AuSable School District and Alpena Public Schools said they have worked successfully with Gillard in the past and will continue consulting with him on school funding.

Crawford AuSable Superintendent Joe Powers said Michigan schools need to be treated less as an expense item in the budget.

“I’ve expressed my opinion to Rep. Gillard that we need increased funding and concrete funding, not here today, gone tomorrow,” Powers said. “We also need to work on cost control for the state because the reality is we are now a state-funded institution.”

David Werner, superintendent of Alpena Public Schools, said he has had to make yearly budget cuts since taking the post in 2002.

“I’ve closed school buildings, I’ve reduced transportation, I’ve reduced teachers, I’ve reduced ancillary staff, right across the board,” Werner said.

To Werner, funding is the biggest problem facing public education in Michigan. He said he’s cooperated closely with Gillard and plans to give his opinions on how to resolve school funding shortfalls, which he said are the results of past funding legislation and tax cuts.           

“We’ve cut taxes in Michigan to such a state that we no longer can afford to operate the necessary services,” Werner said.

Doug Pratt, director of communications for the Michigan Education Association (MEA) said the legislative and executive branches need to look into creative solutions to increase revenue.

The MEA is the state’s largest union of school personnel.

“There are several different tax loopholes that could be closed that are worth several million dollars in the budget,” Pratt said. “For example taxing luxury items is one that has been brought up.”

Rep. Dan Acciavatti, of New Baltimore, the top Republican on the House Appropriations Committee, said he doesn’t agree with asking taxpayers for additional revenue, but said Gillard will do a fine job as subcommittee chair. 

“I think whoever serves on that subcommittee along with the Appropriations Committee has got a lot of work ahead of them,” Acciavatti, said. “I think Gillard will be just as fine as anyone else that they choose.”

School aid will be Gillard’s first priority when the subcommittee begins meeting, but he said he’ll be listening for other issues that need attention.

“My intention at this point is to give all interested parties the chance to categorize or rank their priorities within the budget as well, and then we can move forward from that point,” he said.