Cops, firefighters protest budget cuts

The latest group to stage a protest at the state capitol over the massive cuts in next year’s budget: Police officers, firefighters and local government officials. They’re steamed over the $144 million in cuts to local revenue sharing, much of which goes to fund local police and fire departments. The Detroit Free Press reports:

Dozens of police officers and firefighters, along with a couple hundred people interested in funding for communities, vented their anger at the Legislature today in Lansing. They insisted that public safety would suffer if $144 million in revenue sharing cuts are allowed to stand.

“I don’t know about you, but I’ve had it with the state Legislature,” said Huntington Woods Councilman Jeff Jenks. “We are down past the bare bones. There is nothing left to purge.”

I still say the same thing I said on September 30 when the budget failed the first time: The Republicans are making a big mistake in political judgment. Maintaining a staunch anti-tax pledge may bring applause on Mackinac Island when they’re talking to party activists, but the massive cuts in school aid and revenue sharing necessitated by sticking to that pledge will not play well even with likely Republican voters in the state.

Those party activists may make the most noise in the political off-season, but they are a small minority on election day. And when those budget cuts hit home in their communities, even likely Republican voters are not going to like it. When their local police department has to lay off officers and when their children are dropped from extra-curricular activities because the school can’t fund the program, the rank and file voters — who care more about pragmatism than ideology — are going to be quite angry.