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    Who are the NERD fund donors Mr Snyder?

    Raise the curtain.

    There are headlines and then there are HEADLINES


    By Nick, Section News
    Posted on Wed Apr 29, 2009 at 07:32:49 AM EST
    Tags: Granholm, Cherry, 2010, budget, psychic, chihuahua, Blue Cross (all tags)

    I never know when I wake up in the morning and flip open the laptop what is going to greet me.  Sure, it is usually bad news (this IS the seventh year of the Granholm-Cherry administration after all) but even when the thunder clouds roll across the front page I tend to find myself surprised at how dark and ominous they can be... or at the sheer absurdity of it all.

    Welcome to my Wednesday.

    We've got the Associated Press working the budget angle, either months early or months late, depending on your perspective, because the state budget keeps hemorrhaging red ink to the tune of $5 million a day.  "Gov. Jennifer Granholm, lawmakers working on Michigan budget plan" the headline announces.

    "About dang time," I reply quietly, assuming I'll read about how the Democratic administration is taking the pending deficit seriously.  "Never mind," I mutter as I realize that assumption truly is the mother of all... well... here, read for yourself:

    Michigan is facing an estimated budget shortfall of $785 million in the current budget year, although that could grow as additional auto jobs are cut and the state unemployment rate increases. Money from the federal stimulus package will fill some of the budget hole.

    But Granholm has said budget cuts will be needed even with the recovery act cash. Leaders of the Republican-controlled Senate and Democratic-controlled House have been meeting with administration officials on drawing up a list of what's expected to be more than $200 million in cuts and adjustments.

    Emphasis mine.  So much for taking ANYTHING seriously.  

    How many times did we here in 2007 that we NEEDED a record-shattering Democratic tax hike because A) it would balance the budget for forever and B) because we simply couldn't use one-time fixes anymore?  Now here we are, only two years later with a massive budget deficit and the Granholm-Cherry administration is using more one-time fixes.  

    That sort of inconsistency is enough to drive a man to drink.  Literally, in the 2010 Gubernatorial candidate's case.

    And the hits just keep on coming.  

    Read on...

    Flip over to the Ivory Tower and check out this one: "Board paid as Blues slumps."

    Attorney General Mike Cox is taking a look at executive compensation and bonuses at Blue Cross / Blue Shield as the FREEP uncovers some ugly numbers.

    Still, Blue Cross paid more than $1.54 million in compensation to its 34 outside board directors in 2008, the same year it lost $144.9 million...

    To offset losses, Blue Cross, a nonprofit insurer and Michigan's legally designated insurer of last resort, plans to eliminate 1,000 jobs this year and has asked the state to approve rate hikes for its individual insurance policies. If approved, rates for individual or nongroup coverage would rise 56%; 42% for those with group conversion policies that extend coverage an employer once provided them at work, and 31% for supplemental Medicare policies.

    Those rate hikes will amount to well over one-hundred dollars a month for many customers and will price them right out of health care coverage.  Anyone want to give an over / under on how long it'll take someone in the state legislature to propose taxing those bonuses at 90 percent?

    It is worth noting, though, that many non-profits don't pay their boards at all.  It is a voluntary position.  Then again, the Blues really sort of stretch the concept of the non-profit to the point of absurdity anyways.  

    And speaking of absurdity, what's a morning browsing the news without psychics and chihuahuas?  Maybe the best Detroit News headline of the year:

    "Wind-tossed chihuahua found safe; owners credit psychic"

    That's right.  I said Detroit News, not Weekly World News.  A "pet psychic" in Michigan apparently helped a woman find her lost dog by suggesting she look in the woods across the street from where the dog went missing.

    If Madame Mystic is available on week days maybe she could help Lansing's Democrats find that lost budget solution.

    < AFP's Hot Air Balloon Tour Visits Sterling Heights to Expose "Cap-and-Trade" Tax Hike | Wednesday in the Sphere: April 29 >


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    Budget Deficit (none / 0) (#2)
    by dsheill on Wed Apr 29, 2009 at 02:18:22 PM EST
    Ken Braun was on Spotlight in the News with Channel 7's (Detroit) Chuck Stokes a couple weeks ago. The sick thing as he pointed out was if Michigan had eliminated the SBT back in 2001 and never implemented an MBT, the belief is that our economic growth would have been about average nationally the last 7-8 years. Meaning we would have enough revenue right now to either not have any budget deficit or a very manageable one (say under $100 million). Way to go Granholm. I hope your fiat money from the feds holds you over long enough to leave a bigger mess in 2011 than Engler supposedly left you when you first assumed office.

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