The size of the State’s government is too large for the state’s current resources/tax base and Michigan needs to think about taking costs out throughout the system. Those are two key summary conclusions of the Legislative Commission on Government Efficiency, a bipartisan commission of business and government experts who’ve toiled away for more than a year to come up with ways to carve a $1 billion or more from the state budget.
The commission prepares to soon hit the road on a statewide listening tour to gather citizen reaction. Click here for a full outline of the reformers’ proposals. Here’s a quick summary of a few of their ideas:
1. Save $300 million in the state general fund by zeroing out community college funding and then re-funding the community colleges with the same amount taken from resources previously spent on K-12 schools. To achieve the schools savings, the commission recommends a retirement buyout for 10,000 schools employees, school district consolidation, and consideration of a state-run health care plan.
2. Eliminate or restructure the Promise Grant scholarship for college kids. (A recommendation the Senate is already seeking to enact.
3. A wide range of tightened eligibility, efficiencies, and program cuts to Medicaid.
4. Reductions in prison spending through “more nuanced approaches to sentencing, parole, and incarceration,” cutting prison guard overtime in half, from $100 million to $50 million, and saving $250 million per year on prisoner health care (which may be very difficult given stringent federal oversight of prison health programs).
5. Provide revenue sharing to local governments only for specific services, rather than blind per capita allocations. But the commission would also grant local governments wider taxing authority.
6. A wide range of management suggestions to improve efficiency in purchasing, staffing levels, and contracting.
To keep tabs on the upcoming schedule of public meetings, go to http://council.legislature.mi.gov/lcge.html
