State agencies purchase furniture and other items from the Michigan State Industries, a company that uses state inmates as a labor force and still charges a market price for their products. These workers make pennies per hour but the products are-in most cases-more expensive than comparable private enterprise offerings. These purchases are all but mandated for state agencies. Their ordered to purchase through MSI.

There are many agencies that should be cut but it won't happen.

Cut the unnecessary highly paid executives at some of the state agencies. If I'm not mistaken, the number of 17 level executives ($100K and above) in this state has doubled over the past ten years, while we've steadily cut the actual worker bees. None of these goofs ever loses a job; they're just shuffled over to another agency where a new position is created for them! A few choice FOIA requests would prove this true. Cut 'em!