Here’s the list of community colleges and the links to their 5-year plans and capital priority requests:
Community Colleges: Internet Link:
The Michigan State Bidget Office today unveiled a new plan to allow the public to access community college and university annual 5-year plans and capital outlay priority requests. Architects, engineers and contractors seek these plans of proposed future projects and follow their development.
In past years, each publicly funded Michigan community college and university had to send hard copies of these plans to the Budget Office. There the plans would be categorized and sent to the legislature for possible funding. Then the plans would be boxed and stacked and kept on hand. Now the state has changed the rules and requires that each college and university post their plans on a publicly accessible website.
We thought you’d like to see that list so here is as of February 1, 2012. Listed below are the links to the state Universities. Please go to the following post to see the community college links.
Please note that if the links are broken or otherwise do not resolve, the problem is with the college or university, not the State Budget Office. Where it says “hardcopy submitted” we guess that institution of higher education didn’t read the directions.
FY 2013 FIVE-YEAR CAPITAL OUTLAY PLANS
Five-year capital outlay plans are required annually from universities and community colleges per the Management and Budget Act, Public Act 431 of 1984, Section 242, as amended. The FY 2013 plans cover the planning period of FY 2013 – FY 2017. Per State Budget Office instructions issued on September 1, 2011, institutions may now post their Five-Year capital outlay plans in a searchable electronic format on a publicly viewable location on their internet site. Institutions are to archive these plans on the site for a period of no less than three years. The link to the applicable internet site was provided to the State Budget Office by the institution and any technical questions regarding the link should be directed to the institution.
Universities: Internet Link:
Community Colleges: Internet Link:
It was learned today that the state of Michigan’s State Budget Office has changed the process by which community colleges and universities submit their annual 5-year capital outlay plans. This change may make it easier for architects and engineers to obtain these planning documents.
Prior to this year, all 43 public community colleges and universities had to submit hard copies of their plans to the Budget Office by December 1. Then each of these plans were sorted and stored in the Budget Office and copied for anyone interested in submitting a FOIA request. This was no doubt a burden on the Budget Office staff and copying the documents was expensive for us. Plus, we needed to either drive to Lansing to pick up the copies or have them shipped to our offices – an expense we may be able to avoid now.
According to Lisa Shoemaker, all higher education institutions now will be required to post their plans to their institution’s website. Where on their website is unclear. The Budget Office will then compile a list of hyperlinks that interested users will be able to access and then go to the individual plans. Users likely will be able to copy sections of those plans.
Much more efficient!
The one snag is that according to Shoemaker, the list may be a FOIA-able document. Why, we have no idea. After all, these are lists of public investments using state tax dollars and should be transparently available.
Shoemaker says the final list of hyperlinks may be compiled by the beginning of February 2012. We will wait until then to see how the new process unfolds.
Governor Rick Snyder today signed into law Michigan’s FY 2012 budget. According to the Detroit Free Press, this is the earliest the budget has been signed since the 1980′s.
The budget was enacted without a provision to finance any new university or community college buildings or renovations. This is too bad since these types of projects have an employment multiplier effect – many architectural, engineering and construction jobs are created when the state funds these types of projects.
If the state’s economy turns around, it is possible the legilature will bring up the idea of a higher education spending bill in the fall. But as of today, architects, engineers and contractors who do business with Michigan’s community colleges and universities cannot count on any new capital outlay projects.
It appears that the Michigan state House and Senate have agreed on a budget for FY2012 that will exclude spending on capital improvements for community colleges and universities. Last December, in a last-minute budget gambit, the same body approved planning authorizations for ten university and ten community college projects for FY2011.
Planning authorizations are the first step a university or community college takes in the authorization process for capital outlay projects. Programing documents and schematic plans are prepared by third-party architects and while the completion of these documents does not guarantee that a project will be built, no capital outlay project can proceed without them. Final design and construction is typically authorized in an appropriation bill.
As Michigan’s economy lurches towards recovery these planning, design and construction projects, regardless of size, help with jobs that have a large economic multiplier. One dollar spent on these higher education studies and construction projects means many more dollars of increased economic activity. In short, these are the types of jobs the state of Michigan needs. And the resulting wonderful new campus buildings serve to encourage students to remain in school and pursue good-paying careers.
We are discouraged that, at this point, no capital outlay projects appear imminent. We will wait to see if things change in the final hours of this budget process.