In your "Maybe" comment you state, "If Granholm hadn't killed 500,000 jobs over the last six years and spent every nickel of the suplus that was left this wouldn't be have been needed."
I'm probably going to p*** off everyone today by blowing the whistle on our RINO legislators (then and now), but the rainy day fund was wiped out by Rick Johnson, Dan DeGrow and John Engler's evil twin (the one who replaced the real John after 1997 or so).
They did it in one of the sneakiest, slimiest maneuvers ever seen in Lansing, and that's saying a mouthful. You may recall that the 23 year SBT phaseout (yeah, right) was to be suspended whenever rainy day fell below a certain balance. Repubs wanted the money back in 2002 so they wouldn't have to cut spending, but they didn't want the accountability for ending the phase-out.
Glen Steil Sr. had a bill to allow the SBT cuts to go forward even if rainy day was depleted, SB 117, and of course everyone said they were for that. They tie-barred it to the bill to wipe out rainy day, HB 5883. However, in a voice vote, they stripped out the tie-bar, and then passed the bill without it, leaving just $33 million in rainy day. Here's the stinker, though: Engler's evil twin had already announced he would veto 117, so they all knew that they were voting to end the SBT cuts, while setting things up so they could later say, "Who, me?"
And now you know the rest of the story - and why our legislature has been a truckload of dead rat heads in coke bottles for a long time.
BTW, we can certainly agree that Jenny has killed half a million jobs, however.
