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.
As has looked likely for the last week, House Speaker Andy Dillon, a Democrat, has reached an agreement with Senate Majority Leader Mike Bishop, a Republican, that accepts the full range of budget cuts passed by the Republican-controlled Senate and does nothing to boost state revenue or preserve social services. The Detroit News reports:
Legislative leaders reached agreement Wednesday on spending targets for the state fiscal year that begins in two weeks, a long-awaited step toward breaking the budget impasse.
The deal includes $1.279 billion in cuts but does not call for tax or fee increases, according to Senate Republicans.
An accord has not been struck on detailed cuts within the department-by-department targets. Those agreements will be worked out in House-Senate conference committees in the coming days.
This agreement does not include Gov. Granholm, who may not accept such steep cuts in social services without even attempting to increase revenue. The governor has proposed a combination of budget cuts and an increase in various niche taxes in order to raise revenue to keep those cuts smaller than they otherwise would be. The agreement also does not necessarily mean that Dillon has the votes in his own House to get a budget passed with such steep cuts.
With Democrats in control of both the House and the governor’s mansion, is it really possible that we could see a budget passed without any revenue boosting to keep cuts in social services to a minimum at a time when those services are most needed due to the recession? I hear echoes of the health care reform debate on the national level.
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