LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Michigan's governor is warning of a possible 20 percent cut in state spending next year — on top of the 10 percent cut agencies took this year.
The news from Gov. Jennifer Granholm is a further blow to health care providers, state police, universities and others dependent on public money in a state where revenues, adjusted for inflation, are at about the same level as in 1964.
Many states are having fiscal woes — California notoriously had to pay its bills with IOUs. But few have struggled as mightily as Michigan. The state has the nation's highest unemployment rate at 15.3 percent and has been battling deficits since 2001.
Granholm won't formally present her budget until February. But her spokeswoman Liz Boyd says the governor wants "a realistic plan."
