| In a seasonal twist to the anti K-16 commercials saying “don’t be fooled by 5”, opponents of the K-16 ballot proposal held a press conference on Halloween to warn voters the scary consequences of approving the Proposal 5 ballot question during next week’s general election.
The Senate Fiscal Agency now says that ballot proposal will cost the state budget over $700 million next year alone, with state taxpayers picking up the future tab for increased costs in the teacher pension program. Those costs are expected to reach over $1 billion a year for the state in the next decade. These state budget strains are of serious concern to MITA because of likely cuts to revenue sharing dollars for local units of governments. These dollars are what locals use to pay for infrastructure projects. Proposal 5 would not only require sizeable cuts in important local services starting within 10 days of the election certification, but the financial problems remain indefinitely. MITA encourages you and your employees to vote “no” on Proposal 5. Support for the plan has plummeted from 63 percent support in June to 43 percent this week. Forty percent of the respondents said they were opposed. More in-depth analyses of all the statewide proposals have been posted on the MITA web site for your convenience.
If you have any questions, please contact Mike Nystrom, Vice President of Government and Public Relations at mikenystrom@mi-ita.com; or Keith Ledbetter, Director of Legislative Affairs at |
