But c'mon, raises?  Right now?  Four percent is a small number, I know, but in a state where employees are regularly taking pay CUTS just to keep their jobs a half percent is probably unreasonable.  And when ignore the percentage and look at it in terms of actual dollars?  Suddenly you're not talking four, you're talking 109.9 million.  Dollars.  A year.  Is this the time to give government employees a $110 million raise?  Probably not.

So what's stopping the state from acting?  Legislatively it'd have required a 2/3 vote to cancel the pay increase.  That wasn't going to happen with all of the State Reps and Senators the UAW (the state's largest employee union) has in their pockets.  The other option?  The chief executive has the ability to call for concessions and get something done.  Then again, that would require leadership.  Even on the easy stuff that's not easy.

And speaking of the easy stuff, we discussed the LSJ's coverage of the new MSP HQ project yesterday and the LSJ is editorializing on it today:

The so-called Triangle project - named for the parcel of land involved - is long in development and short in wisdom. At the 11th hour, the state still can say no. It has enough reasons to do so.
Start with price. As detailed in the LSJ Monday, moving the State Police downtown will be costly - $45.2 million over an 11-year period, according to a state analysis.

When you adjust the cash to recognize needed repairs at the old digs during that same time period we're still talking a $6 million investment the state's making that it just plain doesn't have to.  Props to the LSJ for keeping the administration's feet to the fire on this one.  That paper's just full of surprises these days.

Now, on to the tougher stuff.  One of the favorite tricks of the lefties and the taxocrats is to look at a $42 billion budget and to insist that there's nothing we can do about $33 some odd billion of it.  That it's non discretionary... nothing you can do.  There's some sort of cosmic phenomenon that no one's properly identified that actually exerts it's will on that many tax dollars every fiscal year.  In fact, if anyone TRIED to touch those dollars they'd be stricken down where they stand like they'd reached up and laid their hands on the Ark of the Covenant of something (obscure Bible reference I know... go to church).

The Elliot Ness of budget line items is Medicaid spending but, low and behold, Senator Tom George has a few ideas on how we could actually... wait for it... REFORM the way we do things to not only save taxpayers some cash but to also improve the health and well being of those who find themselves receiving the service.  As the Detroit News reports:

Michigan has a health maintenance organization system for its Medicaid program that was supposed to help contain costs, but it hasn't worked. Part of the reason is that Michigan is more generous in the benefits it provides than federal rules demand and than many other states offer.

Its Medicaid program covers nonmandated services, such as chiropractic care and podiatry services, as well as a host of others...

The state should also adopt legislation -- common in most other states -- that requires the elderly to pay for their nursing care if they have the means and prevents them from signing over assets to their heirs to qualify for Medicaid benefits.

Cutting reimbursement rates or taxing all doctors, as the governor suggested, isn't reform.

George also wants to incentivize healthier lifestyles, offering added benefits for mothers who seek proper prenatal care, for instance.  And there's the always the obvious, demanding that those whose healthcare the state supplies do not engage in activities that put their health directly and critically at risk.  Smoking for instance.  

Whether it's in a car or a home or a restaurant.  Well, as long as smoking's still legal in restaurants.

The Associated Press tells us this morning that Dems in Lansing don't think the free market's such a good thing when there's a chance to determine themselves how people live.  They're looking to ban smoking from bars and restaurants citing the inherent health risks associated with second hand smoke but ignoring the fact that in the last few years smokefree restaurants and bars have sprung up just about everywhere, nearly doubling in the last decade.

The Democratic-sponsored legislation is opposed by the Michigan Restaurant Association and Michigan Licensed Beverage Association, which say eateries and bars should be free to decide whether to allow smoking based on free-market competition without intrusion from the government...

"All we're saying is why have the state step in when people are very able to make decisions for themselves," (MLBA spokesman Andy) Deloney says. "We're talking about privately owned establishments. They don't take very kindly to someone saying, 'You know what? I don't like the way you're running your business.'"

No word on who's taking up the companion legislation banning bars and restaurants from serving alcohol, a substance that directly contributes to traffic fatalities every day across the United States.