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.
Michigan Senate Majority Leader Mike Bishop talks with Muskegon-area students at the Capitol on Tuesday. (Photo by Todd A. Heywood/Michigan Messenger)
LANSING — Staring down a budget deadline, Michigan Senate Majority Leader Mike Bishop said Tuesday evening that the state is in “crisis management” mode and that it’s time to cut luxuries, including the Michigan Promise scholarship, local revenue sharing and health care.
“We are essentially a board of directors that has been faced with a substantial loss of revenue and we have to determine between needs and wants,” the Rochester Republican said in an interview with Michigan Messenger. “That is an uncomfortable discussion.”
Bishop said the state has been running with a functional deficit for “five or six years” and the only way to stop the crisis is to stop spending. He said the state has been using “creative accounting and gimmicks” to cover the crisis during that time, and it is time to “limit the spending.”
The problem, Bishop said, is that the state has a lot of restricted funds — areas where monies coming into the state are obligated to certain programming which continues to become more expensive every year. He noted that the 30-percent decrease in state revenues in the past six months had crippled the budget process.
“The problem will continue until we level off and bottom out,” he said. “Then we can re-prioritize.”
He said in the meantime, luxuries needed to be carved from the budget. Among the examples of luxuries he mentioned were things like local revenue sharing, the Michigan Promise scholarship, health care and the environment.
Bishop said the elimination of the Michigan Promise scholarship was a difficult but necessary move by the state. He noted it cost the state $140 million directly out of the general fund, which is unrestricted. He said that there was not a single person in the legislature that wants to cut the scholarship. And he noted that some of his own family members count on the money promised in the scholarship.
Earlier on Tuesday, one of Bishop’s Republican colleagues, Sen. Valde Garcia, told Michigan Messenger that he would not vote for a budget which eliminates the scholarship.
The scholarship awards up to $4,000 to Michigan high school seniors who do well on standardized tests and go on to college. The money is doled out in $500 increments, and if the legislature eliminates the scholarship, students will be left holding the bill.
Bishop also said the budget is closer to done than most people expect, with only one outstanding budget, for the Michigan Department of Transportation, and that conference committee has posted a meeting for 12:15 a.m. Wednesday.
“It’s now a matter of getting the votes in either chamber,” Bishop said.
Do you know where to vote on Election Day? Do you know what to bring with you? Get comprehensive voter information for your state here.
Sign up for our email newsletter