The League of Women Voters has released a project called Michigan Is Ours that includes some truly staggering numbers on trends in state revenues and spending since 2001. Arguing that “the state’s current tax revenues are inadequate to support the services that are critical to a vibrant and healthy society,” the group points to some of the reasons for that conclusion. Like these:

From 2000 to 2010, Michigan tax revenues have fallen in three major categories: personal income taxes from $7.135 billion to $5.27 billion; sales and use tax from $7.63 billion to $7.03 billion; and business taxes from $2.88 billion to $2.47 billion…

Compared with itself, Michigan is a lower tax state than it was a decade ago. When voters approved the Headlee Amendment in 1978, they voted to cap how much money state government could collect in assorted taxes and fees. That cap is 9.49 percent of total Michigan personal income in a given year. In 2000, the state was just about at that cap. In fiscal year 2010, it’s estimated that the state will take in 6.88 percent of total personal income in taxes and fees, about $9.1 billion under the Headlee cap…

From 2001 to 2008, Michigan’s state-employee workforce was reduced by more that 11,000 or 18.1% of 2001 employment…

According to the Department of Human Services, more than 2.5 million Michigan residents, about a quarter of the population, received some type of public benefits in 2009.

And the DHS has to deal with those 2.5 million residents despite having its workforce reduced by more than 27 percent since 2000, losing more than 3,600 employees.