On Tuesday, around two-hundred people gathered at Calder Plaza for a rally designed to tell state legislators and Governor Granholm to "Save Our Services" and not make cuts to essential services. Many of the attendees held signs and placards encouraging the state government to raise taxes to pay for government services for Michigan residents. Speakers from a variety of government and education programs emphasized that these are "not luxuries" but rather programs essential to the functioning of a healthy society.
Speakers explained that their programs, ranging from healthcare to education, are essential to making Michigan a safe and prosperous state in which people will want to raise families. Many of the speakers expressed frustration at being pitted against the schools and other programs, while explaining how all of their different programs were necessary for the healthy functioning of the state. A representative from the Kent County Health Department explained how they now fund 70% of state-mandated programs that they were promised would be split fifty-fifty with the state 10 years ago, making it difficult to provide quality service. Similarly, a family doctor from Grand Rapids told the audience that Medicaid needs to be funded to protect the state's most vulnerable citizens, arguing that "funding Medicaid is an investment in the health of our citizens." Several speakers stressed repeatedly that no more cuts can be made to education for children.
The rally took place despite an agreement reached on Friday that would avoid cuts to schools and Medicaid. Under the agreement, there will be no tax increase for 2007 but an increase is likely for 2008. Significant cuts amounting to $110 million were made to universities and community colleges, while a further $58 million was cut from the budgets of the legislature, courts, and the Department of History, Arts and Libraries. A portion of the agreement also will have the state sell off some of its future stake in money from lawsuits filed against the tobacco industry in exchange for a smaller portion of money up front. However, the agreement has been criticized for failing to take a long-term approach to the issue, with many observers warning that the solutions were only temporary one-year fixes.
Some of the speakers addressed this, calling for long-lasting reforms by the legislature to address the existing "structural deficit" in which taxes are too low to fund services. Speakers argued in favor of bipartisan reform and called for people to be vigilant in contacting legislators as this process continues in Lansing.
While one speaker from the Grand Rapids Public Library did raise the fact that the state of Michigan spends $30,000 per prisoner each year to incarcerate them, there was little discussion of how society and government prioritizes spending. For example, rather than spending that $30,000 on punitive measures such as imprisonment, how much money would be saved if that were spent on preventative measures such as education and neighborhood programs? Similarly, the country has spent more than $430 billion on the Iraq War. Of that $430 billion, the ongoing war has cost Michigan $11.4 billion and Grand Rapids over $225 million. The National Priorities Project has analyzed how this money could be used if the country's priorities were different, showing for example that 134,882 children in Grand Rapids could be insured or 3,903 children could be hired. Moreover, there was no discussion of the tax structure in this country and state that awards tax breaks to corporations and the wealthy.
