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Adam
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http://www.lansingstatejournal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080610/OPINION01/806100306/1086/OPINION01
The Legislature's supposed to be in the stretch run on a 2009 budget to finance vital state services and advance critical policy improvements.
Work done on key accounts is less than encouraging. The 2009 budget is shaping up as another year in which the state spends far too much on prisons and not enough on higher education; a year in which struggling local governments are again left high and dry.
Less than a month ago, lawmakers got the gloomy news that previously optimistic revenue projections were too optimistic. The May estimates left the Legislature $400 million in the hole for the coming year.
That has, predictably, left a number of initiatives hanging, such as Gov. Jennifer Granholm's idea to fund smaller high school academies.
But the crisis goes even deeper. This 2009 budget does not reflect any serious rearrangement of Michigan's spending priorities.
For example, it appears Michigan will spend about $2 billion in general fund monies for the Department of Corrections. That's roughly one quarter of the entire general fund.
In 1973, the state spent $38 million on the Corrections Department and 1 in 20 state workers was with Corrections. Now, it's $2 billion and 1 in 3 state workers is with Corrections.
Those choices send repercussions through every other state responsibility.
State leaders, on the campaign trail anyway, talk about investment in high-tech and college access. Yet, the 2009 budgets for universities and community colleges sure look like more of the same underfunded status quo.
Community Health does stand to get an overall budget increase, but will actually get fewer general fund dollars under the House plan.
Legislators are struggling to put a number to an increase in per-pupil aid for public schools. It's hard, though: The House passed a budget that calls for more money than the state is currently expected to have for that account.
Then there's revenue sharing, the state's responsibility to aid local governments to provide the services citizens use every day.
Granholm had proposed a 4 percent increase in the statutory (or discretionary) revenue sharing funds - or about $16 million more. Even that figure has fallen to legislative axes.
Belts must be tighter, sure. But consider a little calculation from the Michigan Municipal League.
If the state stuck to its proper formula, it would be sending about $940 million in statutory sharing to local governments. The actual figure is closer to $400 million - or half a billion less to put toward policing, fire protection, park operations, you name it.
So, in summary, the 2009 budget looks to be one with no major investments in education, no fundamental reorganization of prison policies, no hope for local governments.
The budget's not done. It could be better - or worse. It's unlikely lawmakers will reprise their summer impasse of 2007.
Still, is this the best Michigan can do; the best citizens can expect from lawmakers they trust - and pay - to lead? |
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Wed Jun 11, 2008 12:23 pm |
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Dave Starr
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| No problem; just raise taxes. It's what the Dems do best. |
_________________
I used to care, but I take a pill for that now.
Pushing buttons sure can be fun.
When a lion wants to go somewhere, he doesn’t worry about how many hyenas are in the way.
Paddle faster, I hear banjos. |
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Wed Jun 11, 2008 2:33 pm |
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