ichigan's budget and the lege

[maxx]

http://jackshow.blogs.com/jack/2010/...dget-9810.html
"... Now that we are only twenty-two days from another potential government shutdown, the leadership has agreed on a deal for a budget that looks balanced, at least on paper. They managed to do this by playing accounting games, using money meant for other purposes and the legislative equivalent of baling wire and string. The one good thing about this budget is that it apparently provides the $84 million in matching funds the state needs to get almost half a billion more from the federal government.
Your lawmakers came perilously close to throwing that away. Economists I respect tell me, however, that this budget is not really balanced at all..."

[johnsmith]

ichigan's budget and the lege

Is that some sort of pig-latin?

[Bigb23]

No, more like Pinky and the Brain.

[Meddle]

If you're having problems with your keyboard, you can edit your post.

[maxx]

I didn't notice the typo until after I had posted. I don't see a way to change the title.

[gazhekwe]

Michigan's budget porcess is always interesting We are all given goals to cut spending in our departments. We submit budgets to that end. I believe the budget we are talking about now is the 2012 budget. Then the legislative teams go to work on them and try to cut them all some more. From the department viewpoint, it's all pain. Then the budget office goes to work to make it look balanced. Each department budget is passed separately. Each Department gets their day in front of the legislative budget team to argue their points, answer questions and cut some more.

[MCP-001]

Michigan's budget hasn't really been balanced for almost 10 years now.

And judging how the election is shaping up, we should be doing the California/New York thing any time now.

[maxx]

http://jackshow.blogs.com/jack/2010/...ces-92010.html
"...After the next round of cuts in November, Pontiac will be down to sixty-one police officers. A third of what it had. Less than one cop per thousand residents.... For years, the state has had to scrape together a balanced budget at the last moment. Most of the time, they’ve balanced the books partly by cutting the money local governments had been told they could count on. We are all going to begin feeling the results.."

[Ray1936]

"Pontiac will be down to sixty-one police officers."

That's about ten officers per shift per day, if no one calls in sick.

[maxx]

http://jackshow.blogs.com/jack/2010/...eal-93010.html
"...when they start the budget process next year, they’ll be looking at a deficit of at least $1.6 billion dollars. They won’t be able to tackle that with accounting tricks. They’ll have to make cuts so huge it will change the nature of government in Michigan, increase taxes in some way --or both. There simply will be no other choice. But at the last minute, the current legislature did do a little something that may come in handy next year. They voted to legalize the sale of alcohol on Sunday mornings. I wonder if they were trying to tell us that we’re going to need it..."

http://jackshow.blogs.com/jack/2010/...ims-92910.html
"... the budget is stalled because the Republicans in the senate don’t want to fund workers who provide child care to low-income families receiving state aid..."

[EastSider]

http://jackshow.blogs.com/jack/2010/...ims-92910.html
"... the budget is stalled because the Republicans in the senate don’t want to fund workers who provide child care to low-income families receiving state aid..."

The point is now moot, since the budget was passed, but Jack must have been drunk when he wrote up that sentence.

His claims come nowhere near the issue involving child-care in the budget.