LANSING - Governor Rick Snyder's first full day on the job Monday included meetings with Budget Director John Nixon and Michael Finney, head of the Michigan Economic Development Corporation. Gov. Snyder reiterated in comments on WJR-AM and WWJ-AM that he planned to propose a two-year budget with the goal of having it signed into law
LANSING - Governor-elect Rick Snyder will keep Kirk Steudle as his Department of Transportation director and will promote Lt. Col. Kriste Etue to the top post on the Department of State Police. Steudle has been head of Transportation since 2006 and has been under fire from Republicans in recent years for his support of the
LANSING ? Gov. Jennifer Granholm said Friday that her administration has laid the foundation for the "Next Michigan" she described in her second inaugural address of 2007, where the state would have a diversified economy and better-educated workforce. Leaving office in 15 days after a wrenching eight years of economic upheaval, Granholm, continuing a series
LANSING ? Gov. Jennifer Granholm, in part two of her year-end interview, said she declined to critize the Michigan Business Tax ? unlike House Speaker Andy Dillon (D-Redford Twp.) and Sen. Majority Leader Mike Bishop (R-Rochester) - reserving her criticism instead for the MBT surcharge. "I think that the idea of making it more profit-sensitive,
LANSING - Conflict over industrial personal property tax exemptions and confusion over who should get such breaks has spurred thousands of court and administrative appeals and moved the elimination of the personal property tax to the top of the agenda for many business and political leaders in Michigan. Taxing authorities have said only property used
LANSING ? Michigan Senate Republicans are wrapping up the process of committee assignments, and among the committee chairs are Sen.-elect Rick Jones of Judiciary, Sen.-elect Mike Kowall of Economic Development and Sen. Mike Nofs of Energy and Technology. Senate Majority Leader-elect Randy Richardville (R-Monroe) said Tuesday of committee assignments: "I would say that we have
LANSING - Governor-elect Rick Snyder spent $11 million on his successful campaign for governor while defeated Democratic candidate Virg Bernero spent $2.1 million. Those numbers reflect spending for the entire campaign. For the general election phase, Snyder outspent Bernero $3.4 million to $2 million. But those figures don't include heavy outside spending by the Republican
LANSING - A package of bills designed to allow a group of local governments to apply for land surrounding major assets, like airports, to be mostly tax-free as a way to convince new businesses to locate around such facilities, passed the Legislature on Thursday. Separately: FILM CREDITS: The House approved two measures aimed at making
LANSING - As John Nixon prepares to take over the process of writing Michigan's budget, moving from a state with one of the healthiest economies in the nation to the one that has struggled for a decade, Nixon said the state will have to ask fundamental questions of what its budget should do and what
ANN ARBOR - Senate Fiscal Agency Director Gary Olson said Friday that Governor-elect Rick Snyder and the incoming Legislature will have to make the massive, painful and necessary structural changes that are overdue for state government. Olson, who is retiring at the end of the year after two decades at the helm of the fiscal