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.
LANSING — With the state facing massive deficits in the budget year ending Oct. 1, lawmakers are scrambling to trim the state budget to balance it. But those cuts, including the Republican move to eliminate the Michigan Promise scholarship program, millions of dollars in cuts via an executive order issued by Gov. Jennifer Granholm and a battle over whether to proceed with a controversial lease agreement for a new headquarters for the Michigan State Police, are now getting deeper — with one state legislator issuing a dire warning of “draconian” cuts in during the next budget cycle.
How draconian? The state Senate voted last week to eliminate $150 million more from state revenue sharing, and a state House committee voted Tuesday to eliminate an additional $10 million from revenue sharing. Those cuts are in addition to Granholm’s cuts of $41 million that came down in May. Revenue sharing is a process by which the state shares captured tax dollars with local municipalities for police, fire and other services. Some communities are worrying that reduced revenue sharing will force local leaders to institute layoffs.
Nathan Triplett, an East Lansing City Council member, is not pleased with the looming cuts.
“Michigan can’t cut it’s way to prosperity. Continued cuts to revenue sharing impact the ability of Michigan cities to provide vital services like police and fire protection to our residents,” Triplett told Michigan Messenger in an interview. “These proposed cuts are only the most recent in a string of over $3 billion in the last eight years. We can’t go on this way if we want to turn our state around.”
But State Rep. Rick Jones, a Republican from Grand Ledge, said the state has to brace itself for more cuts.
“We are going to have draconian cuts in the next budget year starting Oct. 1,” Jones told Michigan Messenger Monday in an interview. “Currently we are looking at cutting 100 [state] troopers, but I think ultimately we are looking at thousands of state employees losing their jobs, programs will be cut and possibly lose funding for many things.”
Jones used the budget crisis as a reason to support his move aimed at ending a lease agreement with Lansing developers Gary Granger and Joel Ferguson for the newly built and nearly ready for move-in Michigan State Police headquarters in downtown Lansing. Jones argued the deal was too expensive during a budget crisis.
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