The Michigan Budget Crisis & Quick Facts
                                                                The Michigan Budget Crisis
                                                                             & Quick Facts

  • Cumulative state tax cuts to individuals and businesses since 1994 reduced state revenue in Fiscal Year 2006 by $3.2 billion.
    (State Treasury)

  • The U.S. Bishops provide criteria for evaluating a tax system: it “should raise adequate revenue to pay for the public needs of
    society, especially to meet the needs of the poor.” (Economic Justice for All: 260, 1986)    
                
  • Today, a median family of four enjoys an income tax burden lower than at any time since 1957. (As reported by Catholic
    Charities in Poverty in America: A Threat to the Common Good; source:   “The Party of Sam’s Club,” The Weekly Standard,
    Volume 11, Issue 9)

  • Church teaching reminds us, “as regards taxation, assessment according to ability is fundamental to a just and equitable
    system.” (Mater and Magistra, Pope John XXIII, 1961)

  • State government employs fewer people today than it has at any point since the early 1970s; yet 1.3 million more people must
    be served  . (State Treasury Department)

  • Apart from Corrections Dept. employees (up by 268% since 1978), the number of state workers declined from 50,000 to 36,000
    (40%) in the 1973-2006 period; in the 2000-2006 period the decline was 18 percent.( State Treasury Department)

  • Every Great Lakes state has more employees per 10,000 population, than Michigan which ranks 44th. (Congressional
    Quarterly’s State Fact Finder 2006)

  • “The teachings of the church insist that government has a moral function: protecting human rights and securing basic justice
    for all members of the commonwealth.” (Economic Justice for All,: 122,  1986)

  • The fiscal crisis facing the state is the worst experienced since the depression of the 1930s. (Robert Kleine, State Treasury
    Department, Southfield, March 19, 2007)

  • If every single state government department budget was eliminated, including costs associated with the legislature, the
    savings would be $297.2 million; the current shortfall is $942 million. (FY 2008 Executive Budget)

  • Since 1984, the prison population has grown enormously (from 14,658 to 51,454, up 251%); corrections now consume one in
    every five discretionary state budget dollars—almost $2 billion, $33,000 per inmate. (Department of Corrections Statistical
    Report, 2004; FY 2008 Executive Budget)

“Many business leaders are coming to the realization that if we continue to ignore poverty, racial and economic disparities, the costs to
our economy and democracy will be massive and even catastrophic.” (Poverty in America: A Threat to the Common Good,  Catholic
Charities USA, 2006 Policy Paper)


                          FOR INSERTION IN PARISH BULLETINS,                        Prepared by the Catholic Caucus
                          AND OTHER EDUCATIONAL MATERIALS                        of Southeast Michigan &
                                                                                                                             Michigan Catholics for the Common Go
                          March 28, 2007

                                                                                                          For information:
                                                                                                  www.catholiccaucus.org
                                                                                                  MCCG: 313/804-0607