OTSEGO COUNTY — In the $9.8-billion Michigan general fund budget for fiscal year 2007-2008 there is a mixed bag of increases and cuts in funding and staffing for some departments that will impact Otsego County residents.

Some of the budget highlights include

• a slight increase in funding for secondary schools;

• a staffing boost for the Department of Human Services (DHS);

• and the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) will receive a small funding increase but will lose 14 conservation officers.

Secondary education will receive $13 billion in aid. Lower-funded districts will get an increase of $96 per pupil, while higher-funded districts will get and additional $48 per pupil. Both Gaylord Community Schools (GCS) and Vanderbilt Area School (VAS) will be receiving the $96-per-pupil increase bringing the total amount per pupil to $7,181.

“It is nice that we are seeing an equity payment and getting a little bit closer to the rest of the schools in the state,” said VAS Supt. Jeff Liedel. “But it is not keeping up with inflation. On the other hand, there are other programs that are being cut and any increase is better that being cut.”

With 200 students, the increase will add $19,200 to the Vanderbilt budget, Liedel said.

Carlee Allen, GCS director of business/finance, voiced a similar opinion.

“It will plug a hole for awhile,” Allen commented. “It’s great that we got something. It is good that they (the state) can do what they can do, but it still comes down to the fact that we continue to have 3- to 4-percent operating increases and we only get 1 percent. We still have to make budget cuts.”

Allen was referring to the annual increases for staffing costs.

She said the $96-per-pupil increase on a student count of 3,322 will add $318,912 to the district’s coffers. Allen noted, however, the district already adopted a budget cutting about $300,000 in expenses, so she saw this increase as more of a break-even point.

Elsewhere in the state budget, the DHS budget provides for 200 more social services positions, according to DHS state  spokesperson Maureen Sorbet.

“The 200 social services positions were added in the budget so that we can reduce the caseloads in the child welfare portions of the agency,” Sorbet said. “We have caseloads that are over national recommended levels so the budget reflects an increase in that area and this will help with this overload.”

The budget said that more foster care would be turned over to private agencies, but Sorbet said that it would be a negligible change since about 60 percent of foster care already is done with private licensed agencies.

“We do work with private agencies; they do about 60 percent.” Sorbet said. “There already was a public private partnership that continues. This is not a move toward privatization.”

Sorbet said these changes continue to parallel Gov. Jennifer Graholm’s child welfare initiative to provide more support for children’s services.

“This is further indication for support of this plan with the additional staffing,” Sorbet said.

In the DNR budget, the plan calls for laying off 14 conservation officers, which will leave six counties without officers.

According to DNR press representative Mary Detloff, DNR Director Rebecca Humphries going to meet Friday with various unions to begin the layoff process.

Detloff said it will be several weeks before the layoffs will be announced and which counties will be affected. She added that there will continue to be coverage in the affected counties, but the response time may lag.

The earliest layoffs will occur in early December, Detloff said.

The DNR got a slight budget increase from $288 million to $289 million. The budget also presumes that the Legislature will pass proposed hunting fee increases by Jan. 15 that would add about $8 million to the DNR budget.

Contact Cathy Landry at 748-4515 or cathy@gaylordheraldtimes.com.

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