I was only there for a half a year but by the end of my time in the HOB there were two pieces I could write in my sleep.  Just about every legislator likes to publicize their monthly "Coffee with Constituents" meetings in the district (even if no one ever shows up) and each of the Republicans likes to make a show of returning to the taxpayers unused cash from their budgets.

Makes sense.  You run as a fiscal conservative you might as well add a little bite to the bark and cut costs in your own office operations.  Representative X would save $3,015 over two years then Representative Y would outdo him or her by saving $4,127.52.  (That fifty-two cents is important.)

Not belittling the effort a lick.  Seriously.  Good for them and well done.  Every fifty-two cents worth of savings we can muster while the state drowns in red budgetary ink is fifty-two fewer cents the Granholm-Cherry administration and House Speaker Andy Dillon are likely to demand from job makers and working moms and dads in the form of higher taxes.

Add it all up across the caucus and the number can get pretty big pretty quickly.  

Then you get folks like second-term state Senator Nancy Cassis (R-Novi).  Cassis, a one-time GOP gubernatorial candidate, isn't a stranger to the idea of leading from the front but the sort of savings she managed to identify and implement within her own office budget is enough to make me yearn for the days when I used to write press releases.  

Cassis just announced that during her terms as a senator, she has been able to save more than $213,000 in her office and committee budgets simply by being fiscally responsible.  

"Michigan is facing a budget shortfall this year and next," she said.  "I am just doing my part as a legislator to reduce spending in these difficult times.  My office has led by example in making smart spending decisions that have reduced operating costs while maintaining quality service to the community.  This could not have been achieved without the input and cooperation of my very competent, conscientious staff."

Kudos, of course, also go to the staff.

"Having realized savings in my office budget, I know that there are potential cost savings to be found throughout state government," she concluded.

Here here and amen.  

Break out that $213,000 number over Cassis's six years in the Senate and it comes to $35,500 a YEAR.  

Now imagine each State Senator managed to save that much each year for just four years straight.  That's $5,396,000 in potential savings per term, just in office allowances.  Want to really get crazy?  Imagine each state Representative managed to save just one-fourth of that amount each year over the course of two terms.  That'd add another $3,905,000 to the savings pot for a staggering $9,301,000 in cash allocated for pencils and paper that could instead be returned to taxpayers and reinvested in our economy... or invested in hiring new state troopers or teachers or providing health coverage for disadvantaged children.

Point being, the next time someone tells you state government has been cut to the bone and that spending reductions will mean kids on the street or cops off it you can point to a conservative like Nancy Cassis and the work she's done inside her own four walls at the Farnum Building that proves that when it comes to finding savings and efficiencies in state government, we literally ain't seen nothing yet.