For decades, sluggish tax revenue and difficult funding decisions defined Michigan’s state government budgeting process.
Category Archives: opinion
Opinion | Current Postpartum Coverage Leaves Out Some of Michigan’s Most Vulnerable Pregnant People
In our training as medical students, we have had the privilege to participate in the care of new parents during postpartum visits.
Opinion | More Education Funding is a Good Start to Boost Michigan’s Economic Competitiveness
Thirty years ago, then-Gov. John Engler used to say that the best-educated state wins. Michigan has not been winning.
Opinion | Michigan’s Cash Assistance Program is Failing to Reach Families in Need
In Fiscal Year (FY) 2011, the year Republican Gov. Rick Snyder took office, an average of 79,660 Michigan families per month received cash assistance through the Family Independence Program (FIP). Eleven years later, in 2022, only 11,947 families received it.
Rick Haglund: Why Repealing Right to Work is Unlikely to Hurt Michigan’s Economy | Opinion
On a bitter December day in 2012, the Michigan Legislature passed legislation — disguised as a measure to give workers more “freedom”— that in reality was designed to strip the financial and political power of labor unions.
Opinion | Monique Stanton: Increasing Michigan’s EITC Will Help Working Families and Local Businesses
On Thursday afternoon, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer announced her support for increasing the Michigan Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) — or as she referred to it, the Working Families Tax Credit — as a proven, bipartisan policy to put more money back in the pockets of working families and small businesses.
Making Credit Cards More Expensive Would Hurt Minorities | Opinion
In 2022, I cannot stress enough how important banking and credit access is to modern life.
State Economic Development Should Put People and Communities First | Opinion
Michigan has two basic economic problems: not enough working adults to fill plentiful jobs, and wide swaths of distressed urban and rural neighborhoods where good jobs are out of reach for their residents.
Rick Haglund: Michigan’s Economy is More Diverse, But Still Too Dependent on the Auto Industry | Opinion
There’s been so much hoopla lately about Michigan’s auto industry making a radical switch to electric vehicles, you might think there’s little else happening in the state’s economy.
Rick Haglund: Threats to Michigan’s Auto Industry Aren’t Just Coming From the South | Opinion
Stunned by Ford Motor Co.’s decision to invest $11.4 billion in electric vehicle assembly and battery plants in Tennessee and Kentucky, Michigan in December created a $1 billion fund to lure new electric vehicle operations to Michigan.