A document hss been leaked that makes recommendations on how to
slice and dice some $3 billion out of the state budget in order to
balance it. Suffice it to say, it will get plenty of attention.
Thanks to the MIRS newsletter guys for revealing this thing that
was drafted by the current Granholm budget office and the Snyder
transition team wants you to know it did not request it nor is it
endorsing any of the suggestions…at least not yet.
Put your seat belt on cause here are some of the items: Privatize
the University of Michigan, eliminate Michigan State Police road
patrols, eliminate some Medicaid benefits including aid to the mentally
ill, no state aid to libraries, wiping out $400 million in state aid to
the cites and on and on it goes.
Even though the Snyder folks claim they had nothing to do with
this, the document could be a blue print for reinventing government
which was the mantra of the Snyder campaign, but for now he does not
want his finger prints on any of this.
Some of the cutting capers have been out there before and roundly
rejected by the current legislature. The U of M thing brought out the
Maize and Blue in force and it never got anywhere. Years ago a Detroit
Senator proposed taking "Smokey" off the freeways, that died on the
vine as well even though motorists might vote yes.
Having said that, the cuts next year will have to come from
somewhere and this document is a good place to start..at least the
current budget office thinks so.
And if Mr. Snyder wants to meet his objective of balancing the
books without new revenue, he will have to at least take a peak at this
thing.
Also note the possible hidden agenda in all this. There may some
pro-government and public interest groups that want this stuff out
there to scare the public.
They may want to rile the citizens up to protest these cuts, but of
course if you don't make the cuts, you have to find the money to wipe
out all the red ink and these groups could be hoping that will lead to
some sort of revenue increase...hence the leak. Just a theory.