MEA Votes

On Friday, Gov. Granholm apparently signed up for the “Take It Out On The Public Employees Club,” joining its ranks alongside Sen. Bishop and Speaker Dillon. Her assault on public employee retirement is another chapter in what is becoming a very long and boring book – especially for Michigan voters who are sick of budget games and gimmicks.

Seems none of the top leaders in Lansing know – or care – about the constant sacrifices and concessions public employees are making. Teachers and other school employees have saved the state almost a billion dollars in the past three years through wage and benefit concessions – the total for all public employees is even higher.

But they’re headed back to the well again – more cuts, more slashes, more rollbacks and more concessions. Corporations can keep their tax breaks without any proof of providing jobs in our state, but public employees need a 3 percent payroll tax. Government contractors need their annual increases (without any oversight), but a teacher can be forced out to pasture in their early 50s because their experience costs the state too much.

This has to end.

It’s time for real, balanced solutions to our financial crisis. We’ve been cutting for a decade and where has it gotten us? To the doorstep of even more cuts!

Check out www.ABetterMichiganFuture.org for a real, balanced solution that will put our state on sound fiscal footing for this new decade.