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23
Mar 2007
The boggling budget battle
Posted by Scott Spielman
at 5:28 PM | Comments (1)
Well, this is shaping up to be an interesting budget battle, isn’t it?
The back and forth between the Democrats and Republicans continues in terms of the project $900 million revenue shortfall—or whatever it is this week—and, meanwhile, the state is being held hostage.
Businesses cannot invest because their tax structure for next year is not set. Residents cannot buy or sell homes because they don’t know what their tax rate will be, either. You can’t so much as go out and buy a pack of smokes or get an oil change without wondering if you’re going to be hit by some unknown tax hike.
Now Republicans have come up with a plan that includes a per-pupil funding cut of $34 for school districts. It might not seem like a lot, but try multiplying that by a few thousand and factoring all the other things the state requires of schools but will not pay for.
To even suggest a cut like that this close to the end of the school year shows how out of touch Republicans are with the educational system. Maybe they think schools have as long of a recess as they do in the summertime.
They also boast of how the cuts spare police officers, without delving into the simple fact that revenue sharing helps pay for police officer salaries. It must be the other police officers that are spared—you know, the ones that don’t work for a city, township or county?
I’d rather see more cops in my neighborhood than on the highway, any day.
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