Since January, we have heard almost weekly about Michigan's budget deficit and the ways our government is trying to fix it.
The state is facing a roughly combined $2.5 billion deficit. It breaks down something like this: The budget deficit for the current fiscal year already exceeds $600 million. The state is anticipating a $400 million cash-flow problem in May.
And if Michigan's government runs out of money and the legislature cannot balance the budget by the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30, it means parts of the state government might have to temporarily shut down.
Departments such as prisons, state police and revenue collections are not supposed to be affected, but the Secretary of State offices, the Library of Michigan and historical museum and agriculture programs are fair game.
Gov. Jennifer Granholm has stressed that a shutdown will be a last resort. Some are calling it a scare tactic. But regardless, hopefully it will motivate the legislature to come up with good solutions.
During the course of the semester, Granholm and the legislature have proposed possible solutions. None of them would completely solve the problem, but they all were aimed at making a start. Unfortunately, it seems most of the good ideas were turned down, while new, worse ideas continue to be floated and partisan fighting goes on.
One of the first things that happened this semester was the discontinuation of the Single Business Tax. It is set to expire at the end of the next fiscal year in 2008. While it was probably a good move to get rid of it, the legislature has not passed a replacement. It was an irresponsible move to remove it with nothing planned to take its place.
Then Granholm proposed creating a service tax, which would implement a 2 percent tax on services such as haircuts, car washes and pet grooming. It would have generated $1.5 billion of revenue while only costing residents about $69 for a family of four.
The Republican-controlled legislature shot down this great idea in favor of more and more cuts, while neglecting ways to raise revenue.
Rep. Phil LaJoy, R-Canton, wanted to decrease the state cigarette tax by 50 cents to encourage people to buy more cigarettes in the state. Rep. Jack Hoogendyk, R-Kalamazoo, proposed making English Michigan's official language to send a symbolic message to departments who printed documents in other languages.
Even Granholm desperately proposed her fair share of bad ideas. She proposed closing the Jackson prison and releasing 500 medically fragile, 117 deportable and 52 elderly prisoners. Then she wanted to delay $73 million to higher education, $13 million of which was scheduled for MSU. And she froze $7.5 million in grants to the arts and other cultural organizations.
As the semester wraps up and we are graded on what we've learned, it looks like our government is failing its biggest task. Unless it learns how to raise some revenue, it won't matter how many cuts it makes. The government itself won't be able to function.
