The new fiscal for Michigan begins in approximately 50 days and we still have no budget agreement between legislative leaders and the governor.
We have no agreement on what revenue sources we will use to provide addtional state revenue to avoid the devastating state budgets cuts needed to balance the budget. We have no agreement on what budget cuts should be made if we will not have new revenue or if we did get a revenue agreement.
K-12 schools start in about two weeks. Most universities begin classes in less than a week. Students who count on state funds via the Michigan Promise grants to help them pay their tuition and book bills each year do not know if they will get the funding--even though thousands of students built a budget for themselves that includes this crucial funding. There is no state budget and in fact the Michigan Senate cut all of the funding for this program.
Maybe we ought to have a constitutional amendment that says the legislature must stay in session, seven days a week, for the 60 days before the beginning of each fiscal year if they have not completed a balanced budget for that upcoming fiscal year. They cannot go home to their homes around Michigan but rather meet continuously in Lansing.
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As a student who is affected by the Michigan Promise Scholorship I find it to be sad that partisanship has taken its toll on how our state governs itself. Our state legislature cant even agree on a budget but they are asking for support in the upcoming elections. Here's a thought: get out a pen and a piece of paper and write down every member of the legislature and make sure they dont do this to you or your kids that are trying to get an education in a tough economy. The only positive that has come from this is many people have opened thier eyes to the ineffective bickering in the legislature.
ReplyDeleteI have to agree that the current state of affairs is rather disgusting. Instead of sitting down and admitting that we have major problems in the state that requires compromises on both sides we end up with brinkmanship politics. I like your idea of forcing them to stay in Lansing to get the budget worked out. The way things are going we will be in the same situation this year as we were two years ago.
ReplyDeleteDifficult decisions are going to need to be made within the next month and it will be very interesting to see what the final state budget looks like for 2010. Instead of addressing the issues early in the summer the legislators took their vacation and left everyone guessing - maybe in hopes the state would find a long lost pot of money and the problem would solve itself? This created major problems for state supported universities and school districts trying to plan their 2010 budgets not knowing what the cuts, if any, will be. I am predicting that not much will really be accomplished in the coming weeks. Some legislators are up for re-election next year or at the end of their term limits - so why take action now when you can just leave the problem for someone else to fix next year?
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