LANSING - A $15.75 billion budget funding the state's universities, community colleges and K-12 schools was sent to Governor Rick Snyder on Wednesday after both the House and Senate passed the bill on relatively narrow margins. HB 5314 passed the House on a 60-50 vote. House Democrats could have killed the bill with 13 Republicans
LANSING ?Three West Michigan companies will receive state grants worth nearly $1.5 million to expand their operations, creating nearly 300 jobs. The money comes from the Michigan Strategic Fund and was announced this week by the Michigan Economic Development Corp. ?Michigan?s leadership in making things and making things work shines through in these new expansions
LANSING - Detroit is one of several key U.S. cities attracting national attention for cultivating ?urban innovation districts? in what is cited as a groundbreaking approach to economic development, according to a white paper report released this week by the Brookings Institution, an independent Washington, D.C.-based think tank. The report presents a timely confidence boost
LANSING - The Michigan Department of Transportation took major heat from members of the Senate Appropriations Committee on Tuesday over questions surrounding the department's request for proposal process, as well as why railroad company Talgo is the only company to submit a bid to Michigan on a high-speed rail project. Critics have charged the RFP
LANSING - Increasing the state's Earned Income Tax Credit would be a sensible way to provide some tax relief to the working poor if the state is going to increasing gasoline taxes to raise money for roads, the Michigan League for Public Policy said Monday. Gilda Jacobs, president of the MLPP, urged the Legislature not
LANSING - The conference report adopted for the Michigan higher education budget includes a 5.9 percent increase for universities and removes language that would have docked Michigan State University $500,000 for its role in a course regarding so-called "prohibited instruction activity" on unions. Overall, the items of difference amount to about $85.9 million gross (about
LANSING - A sales tax increase to finance road construction and improvements would "put a dagger in the state's economic recovery," a letter from the Michigan Retailers Association to Governor Rick Snyder and the Legislature says. The letter, dated Wednesday and signed by James Hallan, CEO of the retailers association, said increasing the sales tax
LANSING ? Michigan Senate Democrats and Republicans are clashing on whether a proposal to increase Michigan's sales tax is the right solution to build funding for roads, and Democrats won't back down on having a solution that includes some consideration for those with lower incomes that would be disproportionately affected by a tax increase. In
LANSING - The Tuition Grant program will likely see the same increase for the 2014-15 fiscal year as the state's 15 public universities. Sen. Tonya Schuitmaker (R-Lawton), chair of the Senate Appropriations Higher Education Subcommittee, said Monday the higher education increase would be at 6.1 percent including the Tuition Grant Program. Other sources were not
MACKINAC ISLAND - Insisting the state must find a way to finance at least $1.2 billion in transportation funding, Governor Rick Snyder said the 15.5 percent fuel tax Senate Majority Leader Randy Richardville has called for would net the amount of revenue the state needs to help tackle the transportation issue. With the Legislature poised