Home / News & Publications / Michigan Catholic News / 2009 / Protect the poor, MCC tells state lawmakers
Protect the poor, MCC tells state lawmakers
by Robert Delaney of The Michigan Catholic
Published September 18, 2009
Detroit - As Michigan legislators work to resolve a $2.8 million deficit by the Oct. 1 deadline, the board of directors of the Michigan Catholic Conference is calling for protection for the essential needs of the state's poorest citizens.
Mercy Sr. Monica Kostielney, MCC president and chief executive officer, said the board "recognizes that Michigan is facing extraordinary challenges and difficult economic times, but the board is also saying that the state has a moral obligation to craft a budget that recognizes and protects the programs and services on which thousands of poor and vulnerable citizens rely for health and safety."
The MCC is the public policy voice of all seven Michigan dioceses. Archbishop Allen Vigneron chairs the Lansing-based organization.
The MCC board's statement, adopted Sept. 2, "calls upon state leaders to overcome divisiveness and to pursue a budget solution that guarantees preferential options for the most needy population."
The statement further reads: "Michigan's budget must have a moral foundation, one that manifests the priority the state places on providing basic human services through an equitable tax structure and a just distribution of resources."
The state is facing a combined $2.8 billion budget deficit in its general fund and school aid budgets for the 2009-10 fiscal year. The Michigan Constitution requires that deficit be balanced by Oct. 1; otherwise the state will be forced, as it was in 2007, to temporarily shut down services and programs until revenues are secured.
The MCC has consistently spoken out against a "shared pain" approach to balancing the state budget deficit, and has called on legislators to craft a state budget that protects the state's poorest citizens.
Earlier this year Gov. Jennifer Granholm proposed, and the Legislature's appropriations committees approved, an executive order that cut some $304 million out of the state budget for the fiscal year ending Sept. 30.
More than half of those cuts came from the Department of Community Health and the Department of Human Services, two state departments primarily responsible for ensuring adequate health and safety for the state's destitute citizens.
Legislative proposals being discussed have called for a 50-percent cut to the state clothing allowance program, which provides the poorest children with limited funds to purchase clothes prior to the new school year; a cut to the state Family Independence Grant program, which provides cash assistance to poor citizens who have no other income; making the 48-month time limit on cash assistance retroactive; cutting the Supplemental Security Income program, which, in part, provides assistance to the elderly and independently living people with disabilities; as well as halting full implementation of the Earned Income Tax Credit, which provides a tax break for the working poor who pay a disproportionate amount in payroll taxes.
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