Governor Whitmer Budget Feb 11 2021-Collective Choice of Resource Use?

Governor Whitmer submitted a new state budget proposal yesterday and there will likely be debate between legislature and the governor on how money should be spent. Each side has their proposals so it will be interesting to see how the negotiations turn out. You can read the budget HERE. It is hosted on the State Budget Office HERE.  Click on Detroit has a breakdown HERE. 

I looked at the budget and there are lots of pages to it so unless your interested in this stuff...zzzzzz. Yet the budget impacts lots of things in our lives from the roads we drive to the services we receive. 

Resources are constrained and that will likely continue until we find new sources of creating revenue. Growing economies have lots of more resources and options when compared to those that are shrinking. 

While we are in a global shift it is helpful for Michigan to think about its resources and how those resources help people struggling today and how to best prepare the field to give them opportunities in the future. 

Taxes and budgets focus societal resources to places where we think they are needed (i.e. to roads or education). Budgets are actually statements about our values in terms where and how much we should allocate resources (bread or butter).

Because resources are limited (in demand) we have to be wise about how we use these resources. This isn't particular to this budget (I'm not making a judgement on the budget because I haven't reviewed it in detail and at the moment unable to make an educated judgement) but to all budgets.

So we have lots of things that need to happen such as getting people ready (training/education) to handle new jobs and limit the economic disparity between the low unemployment for highly skilled workers and the high unemployment for less skilled labor.

We also have long-term helpful things that the money could be allocated for such as developing our revenue base (resources and jobs) through attracting new global businesses, encourage manufacturing and coordinate local/state efforts to attract and develop lots of young start-ups (assuming we want new businesses).

A final passed budget is a collective choice. Let us wait and see what happens. 🙈🙉🙊