About Us
The House Fiscal Agency is a nonpartisan agency within the Michigan House of Representatives. Agency personnel provide confidential, nonpartisan expertise to the House Appropriations Committee and all other members of the House on all legislative fiscal matters.
Fiscal Analysts review the Governor's budget recommendation and assist legislators in developing budgetary alternatives; review and prepare budget bills, supplemental appropriations, and certain transfer requests; provide fiscal impact statements on legislative proposals; monitor state and national situations that may have budgetary implications; research and analyze fiscal issues; prepare reports and documents to assist legislative deliberations; and prepare special reports at the request of Representatives.
Economists analyze legislation related to tax and lottery issues; respond to Representatives' inquiries regarding state tax revenue, revenue sharing, and other economic issues; monitor state revenue; track state and national economic conditions; and prepare reports on revenue and other economic issues.
Legislative Analysts prepare concise, nonpartisan summaries and analyses of bills. Summaries, completed prior to committee deliberations, describe how a bill would change current law, including any fiscal impact. Analyses are prepared for bills reported to the full House from committee and include, with the summary information, a description of the problem being addressed, arguments for and against the bill, and positions of interested organizations.
The Agency Director, by statute, is one of three state officials charged with annually forecasting the state's revenues at the Consensus Revenue Estimating Conferences, which are held at least twice each year.
A six-person Governing Board of House members is responsible for HFA oversight, establishment of operating procedures of the agency, and appointment of the HFA director. The Governing Board members are as follows:
|
Angela Witwer, Chair |
Sarah Lightner, MVC |
|
Joe Tate, VC |
Bryan Posthumus |
|
Abraham Aiyash |
Matt Hall |
For additional information about the state budget process and the role of the House Fiscal Agency, see A Legislator's Guide to Michigan's Budget Process