Web exclusive: Granholm proposes to cut higher education funding by another $30M

Michigan universities could be facing larger cuts in the state’s 2010 fiscal year budget and sports fans might have to pay more for sporting event tickets, according to Gov. Jennifer Granholm’s most recent budget recommendations.

Granholm proposed cutting higher education funding by another $30 million in addition the $100 million cut she proposed in February.

“The governor’s plan does preserve the Michigan Promise Scholarship,” Granholm’s spokeswoman Liz Boyd said. “(It) holds that harmless.”

The higher education cuts are the fourth largest recommended in Granholm’s plan. She also proposed an additional $150 million cut to community health, $100 million more in proposed human services reductions and $78 million in cuts to corrections.

Sports fans also would be taxed under a proposed $87 million live entertainment tax.

“It applies to all sporting events, both college and professional,” Boyd said.

Anyone who buys tickets to those games will be taxed, she said.

The latest budget plan also includes a $685 million increase in revenue from the 2009 fiscal year, and $572 million in spending cuts.

To avoid a state government shutdown, the budget must be approved by Oct. 1.