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.
A seven member financial review team appointed by the governor to investigate Benton Harbor’s financial situation has found that a local government financial emergency exists in Benton Harbor and is recommending that the governor appoint an emergency financial manager.
The panel said that state intervention is necessary in Benton Harbor, “because no satisfactory plan exists to resolve a serious financial problem.”
According to the panel’s report, during the fiscal year that ended June 30, 2008, the City violated state law by incurring significant general fund operating deficits in several areas. The city also failed to have a deficit elimination plan certified by the State Treasury Dept. as required by law.
Here are some of the review team’s other findings.
The City did not meet its minimum contribution requirement to either its General Employees’ Retirement System or to the Police and Fire Pension System for the last several years.
Over the last several years, the City engaged in several street projects funded with grants from the Michigan Department of Transportation. However, these grants required matching contributions from the City which the City failed to remit.
The City withheld federal income taxes from City employee wages, but did not timely remit those withholding taxes to the Internal Revenue Service.
In a move that the review team said illustrated the city’s practice of using money for other than intended purposes, last year the city used $200,000 in loan proceeds from the Michigan Department of Transportation to cover payments to the Internal Revenue Service for collected but unpaid payroll taxes.
The report also noted that the City has had 15 different city managers in the last 28 years.
Michigan Treasury Dept. spokesman Terry Stanton said that according to state law the governor has 30 days from receipt of the report to decide whether the matter warrants further action from the state.
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