LANSING -- Michigan made a promise to high school students a few years ago. Work hard, do well in school and the state would provide you with a $4,000 Michigan Promise Grant to help with college tuition. This week, the legislature broke that promise.
In a last-minute effort to close a $2.8 billion deficit, a legislative conference committee voted to kill the promise grant and cut other college financial aid. This, after they had promised not to do so.
This, after a high-powered commission led by Lt. Gov. John Cherry concluded that Michigan's only hope for a prosperous future lay in increasing the number of young adults with college degrees.
But the lawmakers slashed away. They also made cuts to the Michigan Competitive Scholarship program, work-study programs and grants for nurses, grad students and some others.
Democrats have a huge majority in the House, nearly won the state Senate in 2006 and have the governorship. But bafflingly, led by Speaker of the House Andy Dillon, they essentially agreed to adopt the cuts-only budget passed by the GOP-led Senate. Traditionally, governors are often the driving force in difficult budget negotiations.
Jennifer Granholm, however, has been conspicuously and mysteriously absent and silent for days. Yesterday, her spokesperson did denounce eliminating the Promise grant. But would the governor veto that portion of the budget, or perhaps the entire budget?
The press secretary wouldn't say.
The deficit could have been erased had the lawmakers decided to slightly increase the Michigan Income Tax, now at 4.35 percent. It was long set at 4.6 percent, and once was more than six percent. But the leadership effectively refused to discuss any tax increases, even the tax on beer, which has been unchanged since 1966, when lawmakers actually lowered it.
State Rep. George Cushingberry, D-Detroit, a supporter of the cuts, said that perhaps the Republicans would agree later to a tax on bottled water and, bizarrely, a new tax he was proposing on physicians' income. Finding buried treasure seemed more likely.
The cuts didn't stop there. The legislature also cut support for students in Michigan elementary and high schools by $218 a child, cuts that will be devastating to larger and poorer school districts.
Essentially, the lawmakers, most of whom leave office due to term limits at the end of December 2010, have weakened the state's future prospects to avoid having to pay for them in the present.
One leader who did not fall into like was Mark Gaffney, head of the state's AFL-CIO. He told Democrats who voted for this deal: "When you go back to your districts next month and try to explain why you put cities into bankruptcy, close(d) prisons, slash school funding and remove water protections instead of ending corporate tax loopholes and other reforms, we will not have your back.
"You are on your own."
Revenue sharing was slashed too. "What this means is fewer cops and fewer firefighters protecting Oakland and Wayne county residents, and what this means is diminished quality of life," said Chris Johnson, the mayor of the upscale suburb of Northville.
What Medicaid will pay doctors and nursing homes was cut by 8 percent, throwing doubt on whether some could keep their doors open -- and whether fees will go up for those who can afford to pay.
There was still some slight chance of avoiding the cuts. The entire legislature could reject the solutions of the conference committees. The Democrats in the Senate could refuse to give the bill immediate effect, causing a renegotiation or a shutdown.
Or the governor could cast a veto. But that would require a degree of leadership she frankly has not shown.
Can't make this stuff up
So-called prison "boot camps" have gotten mixed reviews, but while it isn't clear whether the one in Chelsea near Ann Arbor actually reduces the recidivism rate, it does save the state $30 million to $40 million a year in prison costs.
Now, the state may be about to not only lose those savings, but incur millions in additional costs. That's because Senate Majority Leader Alan Cropsey, R-DeWitt, is adamantly opposed to boot camps and doesn't want to allow the one near Chelsea, known as SAI for Special Alternative Incarceration program, to stay open past the end of this month.
But if the camp is closed, the 400 inmates now there will have to be transferred to other prisons, which means the state won't be able to close the facility at Muskegon next year as planned.
Cost of keeping another prison open for a year? At least $30 million, according to the non-partisan Center for Michigan.
Michigan's Senate might want to think again.
Print this story
E-mail this story
