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.
Gov. Rick Snyder enters office facing an estimated $1.8 billion deficit in the next fiscal year, but he is hardly alone; newly elected governors all over the country are facing similar fiscal problems as they officially get started on their new jobs.
Gov-elect Rick Snyder went all the way to Utah to find his budget director, hiring the executive director of that state’s Office of Planning and Budget, John Nixon, for the job. Nixon is also the president of the National Association of State Budget Officers. Peter Luke looks at Nixon’s background and what he has done [...]
Susan Demas of the Center for Michigan spoke to the campaigns of Democrat Virg Bernero and Republican Rick Snyder to get their ideas on how to fix Michigan’s systemic problem of yearly budget deficits, compiling the results into a special report. The bottom line: Neither candidate has any serious proposals for fixing the problem. When [...]
A new report from the Michigan League for Human Services contains some rather incredible figures on higher education in Michigan. In particular, the contrast between the drop in government aid to students and the cost of tuition is extraordinary.
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 [...]
The third party in the May revenue projection business has been heard from. The Michigan Department of Treasury has released its estimates of revenue for the rest of this fiscal year and the next one and those projections are considerably better than those issued by the House and Senate Fiscal Agencies. The Detroit News reports:
The Grand Rapids Press has an article asking the question of whether Michigan can afford to continue to exempt all public pensions and most private ones from taxation at a time when the state is losing revenue and being forced to make deep cuts in education and crucial social programs as unemployment continues to soar.
With the state government facing another $1.8 billion deficit for the next fiscal year, everyone is expecting a bitter fight over the budget this summer and fall. But there may be some federal help on the way. On my radio show Thursday night I interviewed Mike Lillis, the congressional correspondent for our sister site, the [...]
Michigan House Speaker Andy Dillon (D-Redford Towhship), echoing his Republican counterpart in the Senate, reacted to Gov. Granholm’s proposed budget by saying he does not support any tax increases to help balance our perennially unbalanced state budget. “It’s time, first and foremost, to do the hard work of reforming and streamlining state government,” Dillon said. [...]
President Obama unveiled his $3.8 trillion proposed budget for next year on Monday and, if it were to pass in its current form, Michigan’s budget crisis might be a little easier to fix. The Detroit News reports that the proposed budget includes new funding for Michigan to help with Medicaid and school aid.
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