A Letter from a House Member

The letter below is from an email I just received from an unnamed legislator. Obviously, too many of them are not serious about making the necessary cuts... I'm writing to you from the House Floor with a quick update as we face midnight deadline to balance the budget. I am doing everything I can to help the Legislature meet that deadline; this morning the House passed an interim budget as a backup plan to keep the government operating after midnight, just in case.  The House worked late last night to pass more budgets, and we have now passed 9 of the 15 budgets: Community Colleges; Agriculture; Department of Energy, Labor and Economic Growth; Department of Environmental Quality/Department of Natural Resources; Department of Human Services; Judiciary; Corrections; Department of Education; and Military and Veterans Affairs. We have more extremely tough decisions to make. There's no doubt that more deep cuts have to be made to make government leaner and more efficient. However, we have to make these cuts the right way, in the right places. Today the six remaining budgets will come up for a vote: Higher Education, School Aid (K-12), General Government, the Department of Community Health, Transportation and State Police. Several of these budgets represent priorities that we must invest in to protect our residents and ensure Michigan's economic turnaround. I'm very concerned that cuts in some of these budgets simply go too far and take Michigan in the wrong direction. We have to protect local fire and police protection to keep our families and communities safe. We can't afford to endanger our residents and drive away job providers by taking more first responders off the street. We have to protect Promise Scholarships, which help nearly 100,000 students train for 21st century jobs while creating the educated workforce we need to attract emerging industries. We cannot close the door on affordable access to college for middle-class families. We have to provide the resources our schools need to educate our children so they can be prepared to compete for good-paying jobs in the global economy. We can't rob our students of the teachers and tools they need to succeed in life. And we have to increase access to health care for our kids and seniors. We cannot become a state that turns its back on our most vulnerable residents. We are better than that. I will keep you updated as often as I can. Please forward this update to anyone you think is interested.