It’s no secret we’re facing some tough challenges in Michigan. Michigan’s unemployment rate of 13.2% remains among the worst in the nation, representing 681,000 Michigan workers who have seen their jobs disappear, their lives upended, and the American dream slipping away.
Category Archives: Budget
The Republican definition of “investment”
May 17, 2007 – 11:20 am
Aha! Eureka! Gadzooks! Zoinks! While I’ve been under the impression that the Governor and State House leadership want to invest in Michigan, and Mike Bishop and the Senate Republicans want to cut Michigan down, I now see I’ve been mistaken. Both parties want investment. We just define it differently: “‘If we invest this money into [...]
Deja Vu all over again: Standard & Poor’s again warns Michigan GOP to stop playing games
March 12, 2007 – 11:50 am
Standard & Poor’s Rating Service today issued a public warning that our state government needs to get its budgetary act together or face even lower ratings. And the report’s author says that, “from a credit perspective, this is probably the most important legislative session in more than a decade.” While political disputes are always accompanied [...]
Michigan budget update
March 11, 2007 – 11:55 am
The good folks over at Michigan Liberal have been keeping track of the doubletalk and delay coming out of the Michigan Senate Republican caucus. Essentially it comes down to this: Governor Granholm introduced her budget plan well over a month ago and introduced twenty-three bills to put that plan into action. In response, Mike Bishop, [...]
GOP blows $1.9 billion hole in state’s budget; S&P downgrades Michigan’s economic outlook
August 15, 2006 – 10:27 am
Last week, Republicans in the state legislature provided a clear symbol of why change is so desperately needed in Lansing. On Wednesday, the day after the primary, the Republican leadership forced through a vote to repeal the Single Business Tax, creating a $1.9 billion hole in the state’s general fund without offering any details on [...]
GOP’s election year tax gimmicks – what others are saying
April 4, 2006 – 11:43 am
I’ve blogged now a couple different times about the political stunts being played by Republicans in the State House with the Single Business Tax. But don’t just take my word for it. Look at what the Traverse City Record-Eagle has to say. Or the Detroit Free Press. Or the Grand Rapids Press. Or the Muskegon [...]
Putting real reform over partisan posturing
March 31, 2006 – 11:50 am
As I’ve blogged here and here, Michigan’s Single Business Tax needs an overhaul, an idea that is supported by legislators on both sides of the aisle. This potential bi-partisan consensus makes today’s move by the State House to politics first all the more distressing. This could have been a bi-partisan solution to our state’s business [...]
Michigan workers get a raise! (But more must be done to secure economic security for Michigan’s working poor)
March 28, 2006 – 11:54 am
Earlier today, Governor Granholm signed legislation that will increase Michigan’s minimum wage to $6.95 in October – and to $7.40 on July 1, 2008. This marks the first time in seven years that Michigan’s minimum wage workers will see an increase, and will result in an increase of $72/ week, or $3,744 over the course [...]
Culture of irresponsibility
March 18, 2006 – 12:00 pm
Two events on Thursday, happening hundreds of miles away from each other, both made the same point: the Republican Party, which once claimed to be the party of fiscal responsibility, is increasingly irresponsible with our money. In Michigan, the GOP-controlled State House voted to eliminate the Single Business Tax by the end of 2007. I [...]
Michigan’s Single Business Tax
March 10, 2006 – 12:06 pm
The debate over Michigan’s Single Business Tax (SBT) is one of the hottest in the state right now, with Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson leading a petition drive to eliminate the SBT in 2007. Yesterday, the State House Tax Policy Committee approved a bill that would do the same thing. Many of the issues [...]
