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.
GOP gubernatorial candidate Mike Bouchard says Michigan’s state employees are over paid. To fix it, Bouchard told a group gathered at Western Michigan University, voters should adopt a Constitutional amendment to bring those salaries into line with the private sector.
The Kalamazoo Gazette reports Bouchard made the comments Wednesday night in Kalamazoo.
“Almost every study says (government compensation levels) are between 17 and 24 percent higher. So we have to reflect the people we work for.”
Maybe Bouchard missed this study from the Center for State and Local Government Excellence and the National Institute on Retirement Security. That study found that government workers are nearly twice as likely to have a college degree, but state employees earn 11 percent less and local government employees earn 12 percent less than comparably educated and trained private sector workers.
To sum up the study’s findings:
“The picture is clear. In an apples-to-apples comparison, state and local government employees receive less compensation than their private sector counterparts,” said Keith A. Bender, report co-author and associate professor, Department of Economics at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. “These public sector employees earn less than they would earn if they took their skills to the private sector.”
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