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The media recognize that without a trusted, independent source of data and analysis, the flow of information about state and local government issues would be controlled by two sources -- the governmental units themselves and interest groups. CRC is that trusted source. Here are the latest articles in which CRC is cited:
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Detroit's Fiscal Condition
The Fiscal Condition of the City of Detroit states that the Detroit city government must be restructured. The new structure must reflect both the reduced tax base and the limited ability of state government to provide shared revenues.
- Panel of experts has hopes for blighted Detroit
[St. Joseph] Herald-Palladium, May 8, 2010
All the panelists - including Kat Owsley, director of One D; Mike Score, president of Hantz Farms; and Bettie Buss of the Citizens Research Council - conceded that all the problems are real.
Buss presented page after page of troubling statistics about the city.
Per capita income stands at $14,976, and a third of the residents live below the poverty line, unemployment is at nearly 28 percent, the "tax burden is huge," and city officials have often overstated revenues and understated expenses in budgets, she said.
"They fill in the gap with a big wishful-thinking plug," Buss said. While current city officials have plans to trim expenses, "There are a lot of us who think this is still nibbling around the edge of the problem."
But a lot of private foundations and organizations are "taking the social safety net into their own hands," Buss said. "There is great stuff happening."
Michigan's Fiscal Future
For several years CRC has been discussing the unsustainable problems created by Michigan's structural deficit issues. CRC's award winning report on Michigan's Fiscal Future projected that Michigan's budget challenge will continue to grow through Fiscal Year 2017.
- Furloughs unlikely in new state deficit fix
Lansing State Journal, June 4, 2010
"With few options available, they are backed up in a corner. We've raided most of the other pots of money that are available," said Craig Thiel, director of state affairs for the Citizens Research Council, a Lansing-based public policy analysis group.
- More cuts needed in budget
Hometownlife.com, June 3, 2010
Guilfoyle, president of the Citizens Research Council of Michigan, highlighted the CRC's report on "Michigan's Economic, Revenue and Budget Outlook" at a town hall forum with Rep. John Walsh Tuesday at Schoolcraft College.
- Michigan Business Tax drives up cost of doing business, provides state declining revenues
MLive.com, May 28, 2010
"We couldn't have picked a worse time to change our underlying business tax," said Craig Thiel, director of state affairs at the Citizens Research Council of Michigan.
- Michigan hears some bleak projections
UPI.com, May 18, 2010
"There will be no rapid recovery from an 18 percent employment decline. It will be well after 2023 before we fully recover all those lost jobs," said Jeff Guilfoyle, president of the Citizens Research Council of Michigan.
- Michigan: If You Seek A Budget Mess--Look About You.
Journal Newspapers, May 20, 2010
These facts are not new. The Citizens Research Council (crcmich.org) has been beating this drum for a decade.
- Experts' Message to Business, Community, Education and Elected Leaders: Time to Build a New Michigan
dbusiness.com, May 20, 2010
"Michigan’s last decade has been disastrous economically," said Citizens Research Council president Jeff Guilfoyle, one of the experts featured during the Summit. "The state’s economic decline has created a very real disconnect between the current level of expenditures and current level of revenues and this will not self correct. We need to face this fact and adjust our government accordingly, or understand that our state and its citizens are going to continue to suffer."
- Michigan needs to align spending with tax collection, business leaders warned
Crain's Detroit Business, May 17, 2010
Craig Thiel, director of state affairs for the Citizens Research Council of Michigan, said one major problem for funding state education is the balkanization in K-12, with some 770 separate school organizations across the state, counting charter schools.
- Budget experts predict Michigan's economy will deteriorate further
Detroit News, May 17, 2010
Jeff Guilfoyle, president of the Citizens Research Council of Michigan, said the state lost 18 percent of its jobs over the past decade, adding, "There is no rapid recovery from an 18 percent employment decline. It will be well after 2023 before we fully recover all those lost jobs."
Corrections
In June, 2008, CRC published a report, Growth in Michigan's Corrections System: Historical and Comparative Perspectives, that documented the long-term growth in the Michigan prison population and Corrections spending. This report helped frame the current discussion on potential correction system reforms.
- Debate heats up over state parole policies for prisoners
Detroit Free Press, June 4, 2010
Jeff Guilfoyle, president of the Citizens Research Council, said the cost of corrections is eating up larger portions of the state budget. He cited several factors -- corrections employee wages that are 25% higher than the national average (13% more than neighboring states), and parole policies that keep prisoners incarcerated longer than those in other states.
Local Government Service Consolidation
In November, 2008, CRC published a report, Approaches to Consolidating Local Government Services, that analyzed current trends in local government collaboration and suggested how that information can be used to move more local government service delivery in that direction. That was followed up last year with a report recommending new service consolidation in the Grand Rapids metropolitan area.
- Restructuring government faces tough road
MLive.com, May 24, 2010
"Those bills wouldn’t change much from what we have now," said Eric Lupher, director of state affairs for the Citizens Research Council of Michigan.
Compensation of Public Employees
In 2007, CRC published an analysis of employment levels and compensation in Michigan compared to other states. The study, State Government Employment, A Comparative Analysis, reports that the State of Michigan has relatively fewer state and local employees than other states, but tends to compensate the state employees better than most other states.
- Special Report: Public worker benefits under scrutiny
The Center for Michigan, May 26, 2010
"I think it goes a long way toward controlling employer costs," says Craig Thiel of the Citizens Research Council of Michigan. "This attempts to control some of the costs in the future but it attempts to shift some of the funding from the employer to the employee."
- State's teachers among highest paid
Livingston Daily, May 26, 2010
He said Michigan teachers also were the highest paid in the country when factoring per-capita income from 1990 to 1996, citing a 1996 Citizens Research Council of Michigan report.
- Reforming education retirement benefits has turned into a money grab
Detroit News, May 13, 2010
Funding of teachers' pensions and health care coverage eats up 16.5 percent of today's annual school budget, or $360 per pupil, according to the nonpartisan Citizens Research Council of Michigan.
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