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.
Gov. Granholm says she will not veto the final six budget bills sent to her desk by the Republican-controlled Senate earlier this week, but she will have to remove some spending provisions to make up for revenue that is declining even before the fiscal year begins. The Detroit Free Press reports:
With Gov. Jennifer Granholm’s assurance today that she’ll sign the last of six budget bills on her desk, she said there will be no state government shutdown come Nov. 1…
The arguments about how to make it better — restore Promise scholarships to 96,000 college students or $51.5 million in vetoed funds for 40 school districts or aid to local governments — remain. That fight will intensify as Granholm uses new line-item vetoes to cut even more deeply and prod lawmakers to consider raising revenue.
The silver lining?
“Next year will be worse,” House Speaker Andy Dillon, D-Redford Township, said Wednesday.
And indeed it will. The state used more than $1.5 billion in federal stimulus funds to help balance the budget this time around and that money isn’t going to be there next year. State tax revenue continues to decline as the unemployment rate climbs, with no end in sight any time soon, and that will likely require even deeper cuts than the ones already in the budget in the middle of the fiscal year.
Next year’s budget will almost certainly have another $2 billion hole to fix as a result of declining revenue. If the Republicans continue to insist on not raising revenues, the amount cut out of the state budget will be well above $5 billion in the last four years by this time in 2010. There simply won’t be anything left to cut.
The blame for this lies squarely on the shoulders of Gov. Granholm and Speaker of the House Andy Dillon for allowing Senate Majority Leader Mike Bishop, who only commands a slim three-vote majority in one house of the state legislature, control the entire budget process. Dillon has essentially been Robin to Bishop’s Batman throughout the process rather than being the leader of his own party and his own legislative chamber.
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