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November 4, 2003Granholm: All programs will get cutSuggested categories still fall short of total neededByRecord-Eagle staff writer TRAVERSE CITY - Gov. Jennifer Granholm got a few surprises when she polled community leaders Monday on where cuts should be made to eliminate a $920 million state budget deficit. The governor did a quick poll of the 71 invited guests at the Traverse City stop of her budget road tour that asked which of 19 categories in state spending should be cut ranging from eliminating new state trooper hires for a savings of $5 million to saving $140 million by cutting revenue sharing payments to local governments by 8 percent.
The audience also said they would live with elimination of MEAP and Merit scholarships, something that would cut $65 million from the deficit as well as scholarships for students at private colleges. Granholm said one message she would be taking back to Lansing was that there is little support in northwest Lower Michigan for cutting mental health funds ($20 million), or aid to low-income seniors and people with disabilities ($35 million) nor was their much taste for cutting Medicaid programs that cover 70,500 seniors, pregnant women, children and people with disabilities, which cost $140 million. "Every program will get cut," Granholm said, "but we need to make it a moral imperative to preserve the safety net. I will defend those programs." Another program that clearly had little support was giving laptop computers to every sixth grader at a cost of $22 million. Sally Sheerer from the Brethern Schools, where the state has had a pilot program of laptops for students, made a plea to at least put the computers into the hands of students at poorer districts using federal funds and then expand the program when the budget crisis eases. Granholm then dropped the bomb that all 19 categories of suggested cuts that the audience voted on together added up to only $911 million. "We'd still be short," she said. The governor will go on to seven more cities through Nov. 13. The feedback she gets will be boiled down into recommendations to the Legislature with the aim of having a balanced budget by Christmas.
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