I am writing today to announce the closure of the Michigan Messenger. After four years of operation in Michigan, the board of the American Independent News Network, has decided to shift publication of its news into a single site, The American Independent at Americanindependent.com. This is part of a shift in strategy, towards new forms [...]
An abstinence-only presentation provided to numerous school districts in Calhoun and Eaton Counties in October of this year provided false and misleading information to students about HIV, experts allege.
Two county registers of deeds filed a class action lawsuit Monday on behalf of Michigan’s 83 counties alleging that the Mortgage Electronic Registration Services owes millions of dollars in property title transfer taxes.
Despite evidence of the impact of mercury on children and public health, Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette last month joined with 24 other state attorneys general in filing a lawsuit to scuttle new EPA regulations that would reduce mercury emissions from power plants.
The city of Marquette’s finance director, Gary Simpson, isn’t worried about this year, but if cuts in state revenue sharing like the ones mandated by Gov. Jennifer Granholm on Tuesday become routine, things will be different.
Simpson estimated that Marquette’s share of the proposed $41.4 million in cuts to municipalities will be about $80,000. The city of nearly 21,000, the largest in the Upper Peninsula, operates with an annual budget of around $18 million and receives about $2 million from the state for general fund operations.
“It’s disappointing news, obviously,” Simpson said. “We’ll weather this storm, but we can’t continue to do this.”
The news that Granholm was proposing the cuts to municipalities that receive revenue from the state – part of a larger, $304 million cut in spending to patch a hole in the state’s $1.3 billion budget deficit – came as a surprise to Simpson.
“The governor pulled this on us overnight,” he said. “There was no time to react. There was no notice at all.”
David Bertram, legislative liaison for the Michigan Township Association, felt the same way.
“It couldn’t have come at a worse time. There was no time to react,” he said. “The state is in the middle of its fiscal year, but nearly all townships are nearing the end of their fiscal years.”
The $41.4 million is one-third of remaining state payments this fiscal year for basics such as police, fire protection and parks.
Townships and municipalities throughout the state are already suffering from lower tax revenue from falling property values, foreclosures and job losses, he said.
Bertram predicted there will be cuts in local government jobs across the state as a result of the governor’s plan.
Townships and municipalities “are being asked to bear a disproportionate share of the cuts,” Bertram said.
Michigan has seen its tax revenues decline by hundreds of millions of dollars since January as economic woes and the state’s unemployment rate — the worst in the nation at 12.6 percent — have steadily gotten worse.
The state can tap about $1 billion in federal stimulus money to fill the budget deficit gap. But that will leave lawmakers in an even more arduous position heading into the budget year that begins Oct. 1 because there will be no more stimulus money to draw from.
Carl Solden, supervisor of Waterford Township in Oakland County, said his community will do all it can to keep essential services — like public works and safety — from being cut. But it won’t be easy.
The township, which at about 73,000 residents is one of the state’s most populous, saw state revenue sharing begin to decrease in 2001, he said.
The past few years, revenue from the state stayed at the same levels, but over the past eight years, more than 40 full time employees had to be let go due to lack of funding, he said. Property tax revenue is down 2.3 percent from last year.
“Personnel is the most important but it’s also the most costly,” he said.
The township has consolidated some departmental functions and made cuts in other areas in an effort to remain financially stable, but that trend can’t continue, Solden said.
“We’ve made skeletons out of a lot of departments,” he said. “We’ve eliminated a lot of positions. We’ll step up to the plate this time, like we always do, but it’s going to be hard. It’s not going to be pretty.
“Could there be more layoffs? Yes.”
A few municipalities in the state aren’t worried at all, however.
In Traverse City, where the economy isn’t as tied to the languishing manufacturing industry as other parts of Michigan, city officials aren’t happy about the funding cuts, but they insist they won’t affect operations.
The city currently is operating with a rainy day budget surplus of about $4 million, said City Manager R. Ben Bifoss. He estimated the city would see about a $40,000 cut in funding from the state.
“There will be no impact on our services here,” he said.
FOR FULL COVERAGE on the specifics of Tuesday’s budget cuts, see the following stories:
» With revenues down 21%, state officials announce $304 million in cuts
» Actual budget cut is $304 million, not $349 million
» Senate Appropriations Committee moves Executive Order 2009-22 out of committee for floor vote
» DEQ to weather today’s cuts without reducing services
» Michigan State Police union looking at ways to soften blow of governor’s budget cuts
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