How we REALLY balanced the budget

Kudos to Nolan Finley of the Detroit News for his blog today about how we finally “balanced” this year’s budget. You can read the entire blog at http://info.detnews.com/blogs/bloggers.cfm?id=finley
He cites a Citizens Research Council revelation that the 2007 budget was balanced using over $1 billion in one-time gimmicks. They break down this way:
--$407 million borrowed against future tobacco settlement payments
--$165 million in delayed payments to universities (adding to next year’s problem)
--$131 million in withheld pension payment obligations
--$312 in fund shifts (dollars dedicated for one purpose “borrowed” for another)

Nolan is right when he says, “If Granholm were CEO of a public company and engaged in this sort of fiscal fakery, she'd be facing prosecution under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.