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Snyder budget includes big cuts to locals, schools, universities

By Rick Pluta, Michigan Public Radio Network

http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/wkar/local-wkar-953082.mp3

LANSING, MI –
Governor Rick Snyder's budget proposal calls for eliminating millions of dollars in business and personal tax breaks; big cuts to schools, universities, and local governments.

As we hear from Michigan Public Radio's Rick Pluta, the governor says it is bitter medicine necessary to cure the state's budget troubles, and set the foundation for an economic recovery.

Governor Snyder says everyone will have to sacrifice to fix massive fiscal problems that have built up over decades under Republican and Democratic administrations. That includes growing pension and healthcare liabilities that the state will start to pay down.

"We are going to take responsibility for a legacy of debt that has built up over decades," he says.

To pay for that, balance the budget, and cut taxes for businesses, Snyder wants to shut down state police posts and at least one prison; start taxing pensions; cut money for schools, universities, and local governments; and ask public employees to pay more for their benefits.

Critics already say the budget will force more school districts and local governments into insolvency and families into poverty. The governor, who is a millionaire, says he will share in the sacrifice by working for a dollar a year.

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