Posted on 09/30/2009 9:57:24 PM PDT by Libloather
Michigan slides toward partial government shutdown
By Kathy Barks Hoffman, Associated Press Writer –
12 mins ago
LANSING, Mich. – One of the nation's most economically battered states stumbled toward a partial government shutdown Thursday as Michigan lawmakers failed to agree on a spending plan in one of the only states without a budget in place.
A deal to fill a nearly $3 billion shortfall with federal recovery dollars and more than $1 billion in cuts fell through, as many lawmakers discovered they couldn't stomach deep cuts to schools and local services such as police and fire protection in the stricken state.
They also failed to finalize a temporary budget and avert Michigan's second shutdown since 2007.
Secretary of State offices were set to close Thursday and state parks prepared to ask visitors to leave if the impasse remained when state workers were supposed to report for work. Essential services such as state police and prisons would continue running.
"We have taken steps to put a shutdown in place," Granholm spokeswoman Liz Boyd said shortly after midnight. But Boyd said the governor's office was waiting on a possible resolution from the Legislature to keep government running before state offices were scheduled to open Thursday.
Michigan already is struggling with the nation's highest unemployment rate, a shrinking auto industry, a high rate of home foreclosures and an economy that soured long before the national recession hit. The number of people receiving food stamps and unemployment checks keeps going up, and it's the only state where the Census Bureau found poverty rates rose two years in a row.
Pennsylvania is the only other state without a budget deal enacted.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
It's worked well here in California...oh wait, that's right...it hasn't.
So, of course, it's the Republicans' fault.
Have to tax unemployment benefits.
Michigan can only implode now.
They did that when the government shut down two years ago. There are conservatives who remembered the black eye they took and they haven't caved...yet.
Could they sell Detroit to Canada?
Don't you mean 'pay Canada to take Detroit?' No, wait! They don't have any money to pay anyone to take anything.
I just got a newswire flash that GM is announcing that a deal to have a joint venture of Penske/Fiat to takeover Saturn has not worked out and Saturn, which has never been profitable, is finally dead. All dealerships closed within 12 months and brand killed like Pontiac.
The biggest obstacle to prosperity is big government. To put it another way, the financial growth of any society is inversely proportional to the growth of government. If Michigan reduced the size of government, including government programs and personnel, and reduced taxes, economic growth would explode.
They can thank the blood suckers at the UAW.
The UAW and liberalism (high taxes, regulation, corruption, unions and on and on) killed the state.
It's a bird,
It's a plane,
It's an Obama bailout for Michigan.
Faster than a speeding bullet
Obama will throw bailout money around Michigan like fertilizer.
That will kill another 5000 jobs in Michigan. Sad.
Yup. Killed by the UAW.
That is a True Statement, but even if everyone agreed on the solution, there is point of no return from which nothing will fix it.
There is also the cultural element when the street rabble (as in France at the time of the Revolution) make it impossible to fix the problem.
Self government only works with a people who are informed, moral and responsible.
Ever notice one particular political machine nearly always rules the management of the most violent cities in the U.S.?
1. St. Louis, MO: Francis G. Slay (D)
2. Detroit, MI: Kwame Kilpatrick (D)
3. Flint, MI: Don Williamson (D)
4. Compton, CA: Eric Perrodin (D)
5. Camden, NJ: Gwendolyn Faison (D)
6. Birmingham, AL: Larry Langford (D)
7. Cleveland, OH: Frank G. Jackson (D)
8. Oakland, CA: Ron Dellums (D)
9. Youngstown, OH: Jay Williams (D)
10. Gary, IN: Rudolph Clay (D)
11. Richmond, CA: Gayle McLaughlin (Green) <-— close enough
12. Baltimore, MD: Sheila Dixon (D)
13. Memphis, TN: W. W. Herenton (D)
14. Trenton, NJ: Douglas H. Palmer (D)
15. Richmond, VA: L. Douglas Wilder (D)
16. Kansas City, MO: Mark Funkhouser (D)
17. Atlanta, GA: Shirley Franklin (D)
18. Cincinnati, OH: Mark L. Mallory (D)
19. Washington, DC: Adrian Fenty (D)
20. North Charleston, SC: R. Keith Summey (R) (yes. pretty lonely on this list)
Doug Palmer, the Mayor of Trenton, actually lives about 20 miles north in Hunterdon County. When your own Mayor refuses to live in town, you know you have problems.
Soon we will all be on the dole here in MI :(
the partial shut down is in the Senate and the House. What a bunch of loosers
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