Here is a look at Rick Snyder's proposal for Michigan budget cuts. He replaces business tax with a flat 6% corporate tax and proposes 5% cuts in education spending. What do you think the possible consequences could be?
http://www.connectmidmichigan.com/news/story.aspx?id=582566
Snyder's remarks on how these budget cuts should have occurred in the 80's or 90's reminds me of Regan, and what he should have done in retrospect.
ReplyDeleteCutting revenue sharing will have dramatic short run effects for towns and cities. The state may be able to balance their budget but it will trickle down to the county and municipality level.
I just really don't see where the 5% cut in k-12 education spending is going to come from. School districts, Kalamazoo especially, are already in terrible shape. My high school, Comstock, about four miles from here, can't even afford transportation for players to get to a lot of their sporting events. It will be interesting to see how this plays out. During his campaign he boasted about how he had such a great plan to turn the Michigan economy around. I hope he can walk the walk.
ReplyDeleteAgain, it seems very good in theory. And it seems like it should work, cutting the deficit, helping out our economy and lowering unemployment. Will it hold true? We will have to wait and see. It is the revenue sharing cut that interests me the most. Having the state not help / bail out the local governments so much is important for self-sufficient means of doing things so maybe we can prevent this from happening again. Hopefully he can...we need this in our state.
ReplyDeleteI think that short term the effects are gonna be felt real hard but eventually the economy - at every level - is going to adjust itself. Cuts like this will force efficiency and more prioritized budgeting at all levels and sectors. However, the cuts in education is something that i am strongly opposed to. I really can't imagine there being any room to cut 'wasteful' spending in the school sector!
ReplyDeleteThere is no good way to do it. Politicians waste more time and resources arguing over who's way is better. Just enact a budget and we'll see what happens. If it sucks, then there's always next year. It can't get much worse in Michigan right now anyway. i would rather see someone do something than argue over nothing.
ReplyDeleteIt's nice to see that Snyder's budget proposal includes initiatives such as easing the tax burden on big businesses in Michigan to bring more and better jobs into Michigan. At least he seems to be trying to follow through with his campaign call for more and better jobs; it appears that these weren't just slogans with lack of substance that he used to get elected. Hopefully these tax breaks will really help expand and grow the businesses that are already in Michigan. In terms of cuts in education, I don't really agree with the proposed budget. Where will this money come from within the schools, and how drastically will it effect Michigan schools and our future generations who will be faced with extreme competition in the global economy?
ReplyDeleteI agree with Richard, and this is a huge reason why I can't stand politics. Michigan's economy it at about an all time low, so why are we waisting precious time and resources debating about what we should do. Acting on any plan, I believe, is much better than not acting at all, lets try these things out and then develop new solutions according to the results. We can only look up from here.
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