The cost of Michigan's recount

Former Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein raised seven million dollars in one week for recounts in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

The Secretary of State's office says that the recount will be done by hand. Secretary of State Ruth Johnson estimates that the recount could cost Michigan taxpayers five million, but what does that mean for local counties.

This is uncharted territory for county clerks, since Michigan has never had a statewide recount in a national election.

According to state law, Stein needs to pay just under $800,000 for the statewide voting recount. Each county will get reimbursed $125 for each precinct it has. Kalamazoo County Clerk Tim Snow just hopes his department will break even.

"You never know what the costs might add up to be once we get into it," said Snow.

Snow is in the process of hiring dozens of election workers to begin the recount on Saturday.

"The last time we did it in the county in three and a half days," said Snow. "We have 40,000 ballots this time, but we'll have more people so we're hoping to get it done in four days."

In Calhoun County, 80 workers will be recounting ballots at a church in Marshall. Calhoun County Clerk Anne Norlander says the recount seems unnecessary.

"A Green Party candidate for heaven sake, that got one percent of the vote is going to just talk about the integrity of the process at a cost to the taxpayers," said Norlander.

Calhoun County has 64 precincts, so Norlander's office would be reimbursed $8,000, Norlander says she expects they will need to fund about $10,000 due to employee costs and food for the workers.

"We have to pay our workers," said Norlander, "we have to pay them a living wage if they're going to work from nine to seven, I think we decided on $100 a day."

Each party will be allowed two challengers in each county recount, attorneys and other citizens will be involved, including recount observers.

Stein made a call on her website for volunteer observers and dozens showed up to attend a training session in Kalamazoo Wednesday evening, one of seven sessions held statewide.

Election recounts will begin Friday in most of the larger counties in the state, smaller counties will start a day or two later. Calhoun County will begin theirs on Sunday.

In Kalamazoo, top election officials from Kalamazoo, Allegan, Calhoun and Berrien County will gather to make sure the process goes smoothly.

As a general rule, if the money is spent on long-term investment in the state's infrastructure (e.g., transportation systems), issuing debt is a sound way to equate for each generation of taxpayers the benefits and costs of a project. For example, it is unfair to require current taxpayers to pay the full cost for constructing a building that will be used for many years. The PROBLEM is when a state issues debt to pay for current expenditures. If debt is financing an imbalance in a government's operating budget, to cover for revenue shortfalls (rather than simply to resolve timing problems, as described above), then to issue debt is to put an unfair financial burden on future generations. Since the start of 1990, Michigan's general-obligation and revenue-backed debt has grown by $156 for every state resident. Some analysts believe that this growth is excessive. ****They also point out that in just a decade, annual state short-term borrowing to fund the mid-year cash flow deficit has grown from zero to nearly $1 billion.)**** Many analysts argue a more subtle point against Michigan's current debt policy. The Michigan Constitution's drafters clearly were worried about excessive state debt, and they set out very strict restrictions on the state's issuance of general-obligation bonds. They hoped that requiring a popular vote before bonds may be issued would be an effective check on state debt. And, as the exhibit shows, Michigan's general-obligation debt remains very low, both in absolute terms and relative to other states. The exhibit also shows, however, an explosion in other debt, both direct and indirect. Some analysts believe that all debt bearing the state's name should require voter approval. Many among the supporters of Michigan's current debt policy, however, concede that the state's cash-flow situation—resulting in the need to borrow nearly $1 billion each year to make mid-year payments—was UNSUSTAINABLE. Michigan debt Clock http://www.michiganinbrief.org/edition06/text/issues/issue-54.htm

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