But it gets worse.  According to the Associated Press, 60 of Michigan's 83 counties actually saw population declines last year with new births down as well.

Births in this country topped 4.3 million in 2007, more than any other year in the nation's history, surpassing the peak during the post-World War II baby boom 50 years earlier. But many of those babies were conceived in 2006, when the economy was relatively good. A nation's birth rate tends to rise in times of prosperity, according to experts.

Meanwhile, The Detroit News reported the boomlet didn't extend to Michigan, where the number of births declined in 2007 by more than 2,100 to 125,394. That's just two-thirds of the number in 1960, when the state recorded 195,056 births at the peak of the baby boom.

The bright spot?  West Michigan where Grand Rapids, Kent County and Ottawa County saw population growth last year.  Apparently we're chock full of naturally cool cities.  Go figure.

Now that voters may have a chance (depending on whether or not Andy Dillon and the House bother to act) to prevent their property taxes from going up while their home values plummet, maybe we can prevent a little more outward migration in calendar year 2009.