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.
After a month of operating on a continuing budget, and just days after Gov. Jennifer Granholm finally signed the last few budget bills to avoid another government shutdown, the budget situation for FY 2010, which began Oct. 1, has already deteriorated. The result: More cuts will be required on top of what has already been pruned from the budget. The Detroit News reports:
The budget year that begins Oct. 1, 2010, is already in the hole, experts say. Gary Olson, director of the Senate Fiscal Agency, financial arm of the Senate, said the general fund for next year is nearly $800 million short. And that assumes the $1.7 billion in cuts this year remain in place. The general fund is the state’s main checking account.
“How do we cut another $800 million out of the general fund? Where do you go?” Olson asked. He added that absent spending reforms or additional revenue, the state will have no choice but to slice again into aid for universities and the revenue sharing that municipalities rely on to pay police and firefighters.
And bear in mind that Olson is actually more optimistic than his counterpart at the House Fiscal Agency, Mitchell Bean. Olson believes the School Aid Fund will be in good shape for the year, while Bean believes there will be serious shortfalls in the SAF along with an even bigger hole in the General Fund:
Mitchell Bean, director of the House Fiscal Agency, is more pessimistic. He said his “back of the envelope calculation” shows the shortfall in the general fund will be about $1 billion and cutbacks in school aid will amount to an additional $200 to $300 per student.
“We’re looking at a terrible hole,” he said.
The legislature used nearly $1.5 billion in federal stimulus money to help close the gap this year, but only has about $500 million leftover for next year. What all of this means is that the 2011 budget will be far more difficult to balance than this year’s budget, which required a brief shutdown, a continuing budget and a final result that absolutely no one is happy with.
And it will take place in an election year, when politicians from both sides are busy striking politically convenient poses rather than working diligently to fix real problems. If you think the last few weeks has been ugly and dysfunctional, you ain’t seen nothing yet.
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