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.
With another deficit of $1.7 billion projected for the fiscal year 2011 budget that begins in October, Republican leaders in the state legislature are proposing the same thing they proposed last year – deep cuts, including salary reductions for teachers and other public employees, and no new revenues to help pay for government services. And they want to amend the state constitution to make those things permanent and mandatory. The Detroit Free Press reports:
Republicans in the state Senate said this afternoon they want to ask voters to amend Michigan’s constitution to cut the pay and health care benefits of all public employees – including lawmakers — to address what they said is the state’s grim financial reality.
The proposed cuts would result in public school teachers, local, county and state employees covering 20% of the cost of their health insurance, and enact a 5% pay cut across the board and frozen for three years.
The plan would also eliminate Medicaid coverage for those 19 and 20 years old and all other optional Medicaid spending, cap the administrative costs for school districts, and further consolidate government agencies at the state and local level. What is missing, as always, is even a consideration of any new revenues.
State tax revenue is now at about the same level it was a decade ago and we have now cut nearly $10 billion out of the budget over the last few years, including steep cuts in spending on K-12 education and in local revenue sharing that funds police and fire protection.
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