Michigan's Economic Growth
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- Created on Tuesday, 08 May 2012 19:41
The State of Michigan's Economy
Read Judi's views on the state of Michigan's economy
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the unemployment rate for March 2012 in Michigan was 8.5%., with Saginaw County currently at 8.75%. Economy experts agree the improvement in the unemployment situation over the last two years is primarily a result of recovery in the automobile industry, and accounted for one in ten of the actual count of new jobs. Michigan’s construction industry is still flat, and there are still many areas where job and other cuts have shown a negative rippling effect on our economy. Actions taken in Lansing since January 2011 will not help the economy recover or expand.
- We have seen significant job loss due to cuts in state and local government over several years
- Michigan is the ONLY state that cut the time of basic unemployment benefits from 26 weeks down to 20, negatively impacting the long-term unemployed
- Workers compensation laws have been changed to restrict the number of persons entitled to benefits when they are injured on the job and cannot work
- Taxes have been increased for seniors, retirees and low income wage earners
Michigan's Public Education
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- Created on Wednesday, 16 May 2012 07:10
Education Budgets
During the budget process in the spring of 2011, funding for K-12 public education was slashed; school districts saw drastic reductions in per-pupil funding.
In my 12 years on the Saginaw Township School Board, one of the biggest challenges for budgeting was unreliability of funding from year to year. Sometimes the challenge was exacerbated by a very slow state legislature failing to produce a state budget (including school aid budget) until after school started in September. The delay in the state budget didn’t translate into a longer time for individual schools to budget for the coming year. The state mandated school district budget approval by June 30th was never given reprieve, so slow budgets at the state level always made a difficult process for individual schools more difficult than it usually was.
Even more of a challenge was the uncertainty from year to year, and even month to month that basic per-pupil funding (called foundation allowance) would remain at some stable level. It is very difficult to operate a school district when there is no confidence that funding will not be cut next the year or even the next month.
Michigan's Tax Policy
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- Created on Wednesday, 16 May 2012 07:10
Specific Legislation and Budget Process Measures
Recent action in Lansing created a $1.6 billion budget shortfall in a process that cut taxes for businesses, and increased taxes on senior citizens, retirees and low income wage earners. I agree that the current business tax structure was poorly conceived and needed restructuring, however, I am troubled that the cost of repairing the budget hole caused by this cut was placed on the backs of people who generally don’t have a strong voice in Lansing.
Under the new structure, two-thirds of Michigan corporations will be exempt from paying corporate income tax. Furthermore, the small businesses that are the real job creators are not necessarily incorporated, so may not be receiving those corporate tax breaks.