Like many districts in Michigan, Milan Area Schools suffered a reduction in student enrollment. But unlike other districts, many of the district's employees will be getting more money this year than originally planned even with the drop in enrollment.

Milan Superintendent Bryan Girbach said it was because the district took a hard look at enrollment trends while unions worked with the district to get a balanced budget.

The result: employees will get 1.7 percent back from their contractual concessions, Girbach said. 

Milan Area Schools had 2,385 students in 2012-13. It budgeted for a 7 percent reduction to 2,231 students. The October student count for 2013-14 was 2,260, a drop of 125 students from the previous year, but 29 more students than the district had budgeted. The district used computer models to come up with its student count projections.

"Everyone in our district understands the importance of achieving a balanced annual budget," Girbach said. "Therefore, we 'right sized' our staffing levels in every department (downsizing the overall district staff by more than 25 full-time equivalent employees). We also negotiated contracts with our employee groups that included fairly heavy concessions. We are blessed to have unions in our district that work with the board and administration to develop contracts that allow the district to be fiscally responsible. The 'right sizing' and employee concessions allowed us to accomplish a balanced budget based on our pupil count projections."

Starting in November, school employees started getting their "rebates," he said.

"The board and I have no intention of banking money on the backs of our employees," Girbach said. "Therefore, we are using the additional funds to give back a portion of the concessions that our employees agreed to in July."

The Lansing School District also had fewer students leave the district than it had budgeted, said district spokesman Robert Kolt.

Lansing schools went from 12,470 students in 2012-13 to 12,123 this school year. The district budgeted for 12,100 students.

"The 12,123 is above all projections and Lansing is happy," Kolt said in an email. "The budget is balanced; cash in the bank; credit rating is stable with a presentation scheduled to bond agencies in December."

Enrollment numbers are significant because each student brings money to the school district. Most school districts get about $7,000 per student from the state, according to the Michigan Department of Education. 

Some districts ignore negative trends and place themselves in financial crisis, said Audrey Spalding, education policy director at the Mackinac Center for Public Policy.

"Milan did the opposite by budgeting conservatively," Spalding said. "Milan is demonstrating how a district can deal with an enrollment decline responsibly and proactively. Other districts should take note."

A new bill giving public safety employees a carve out from a key labor reform is in the House Commerce Committee.

Public Act 54 of 2011 banned seniority-based automatic pay raises for individual government employees when a union contract has expired and no replacement has been negotiated. Before enactment of the law, union members could get automatic pay increases while new contracts were being negotiated, which served as a disincentive to reaching agreements. 

But House Bill 5097, which has 23 co-sponsors, would exempt law enforcement and fire department employees from the law. Specifically, the exemption would apply to employees who are covered by Public Act 312 of 1969, which is a compulsory arbitration law.

Under House Bill 5097 government public safety employees would be the winners at the taxpayers' expense, said Jack McHugh, senior legislative analyst with the Mackinac Center for Public Policy.

"Life is already tough for state taxpayers stuck paying $5.8 billion more annually for government employee fringe benefits than the cost if those bennies just matched private sector averages," McHugh said. "Life is hard enough for public safety officials trying to balance budgets in the face of laws that already tilt the bargaining table toward government unions, including a binding arbitration law for police that arbitrarily jacks compensation rates far above what the market suggests is appropriate. So why would a bipartisan group of legislative sponsors want to make life even harder for taxpaying families and struggling local budgets?"

House Speaker Pro-tempore John Walsh, R-Livonia, the primary sponsor of House Bill 5097, introduced the legislation on Oct. 23.

Rep. Walsh said Public Act 54 of 2011 was not passed with the intent of impacting the government employees that House Bill 5097 would exempt.

"When we passed Public Act 54 there were no thoughts at all that it would apply to employees who were covered by Public Act 312," he said. "At the time, the police and firefighters were told it wouldn't affect them. In fact, Public Act 54 has language that is in conflict with Public Act 312. So, to me, it is a situation where we either do legislation or eventually face litigation. In my opinion, the best way to deal with this is by amending Public Act 54, so I introduced the bill."

On June 7, 2011, Gov. Rick Snyder signed House Bill 4152, which became Public Act 54 of 2011. The legislation was sponsored by former Rep. Marty Knollenberg, R-Troy. It was passed by the House on a 63-47, party-line vote and on May 18, 2011, by the Senate on a 21-17 vote.

Bipartisan Cosponsors:

There are 18 Republicans co-sponsoring the legislation. They are Reps: Kevin Cotter, R- Mt. Pleasant; Hugh Crawford, R-Novi; Kevin Daley, R-Attica; Jeff Farrington, R-Utica; Frank Foster, R-Pellston; Ken Goike, R-Ray Township; Nancy Jenkins, R-Clayton; Eileen Kowall, R-White Lake; Ken Kurtz, R-Coldwater; Andrea LaFontaine, R-Richmond; Matt Lori, R-Constantine;  Lisa Posthumus Lyons, R- Alto; Mike McCready, R-Birmingham; Rick Outman, R-Six Lakes; Peter Pettalia, R- Presque Isle; Wayne Schmidt, R- Traverse City;  Pat Somerville, R-New Boston; and Dale Zorn, R-Ida.

Five Democrats are also co-sponsors. They are: Reps:Vicki Barnett, D-Farmington Hills; Paul Clemente, D-Lincoln Park; Brandon Dillon, D-Grand Rapids; Tim Greimel, D-Auburn Hills; and Henry Yanez, D- Sterling Heights.