Q: If you have a Constitutional requirement to balance the budget...then don't...then hide it...is that cause for impeachment or recall???
Q: If you win an election and then ask Corporations for MILLIONS of dollars to throw "innaugural parties" statewide...while we have the highest unemployment in the country...thousands are being laid off...is that cause for impeachment or recall???
Q: If you raise MILLIONS of dollars into a super secret slush fund called Partnership for Progress...to help you "govern"....and then that slush fund disappears...is that cause for impeachment or recall???
...or is all of this just politics as usual???
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061215/OPINION01/612150316/1008
Friday, December 15, 2006
Did governor hide budget overruns to aid campaign?
The Detroit News
GOP state lawmakers suspect politics in the Granholm administration's failure to inform them of departmental overspending until after this year's election. They're right to do so.
The departments of Human Services, Corrections and state police all spent more money -- adding up to more than $50 million -- than they were allotted in the 2005-06 budget year, which ended in September.
Only in late November were lawmakers informed of the overspending as the departments sought additional appropriations to cover their expenses. Yet at a legislative hearing this week, according to Rep. Scott Hummel, R-DeWitt, chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, representatives from two of the departments, Corrections and the State Police, said they knew about the spending overruns in October.
Asked if the failure to notify the Legislature of the spending overruns had anything to do with the gubernatorial campaign, Hummel answered, "it appears that way to me."
"What bothers me," he continued, "is that we're the elected representatives of the people and it's our job to deal with these issues. Yet they (the departments) chose to bypass us."
In noting that decision, a memorandum from the House Fiscal Agency said requirements in the state Management and Budget Act as well as the state Constitution prohibit such spending outside of current appropriations.
The fiscal agency memo said lawmakers should ask the administration why the chairs of both the House and Senate appropriations committees weren't immediately notified of the spending overruns.
State Budget Director Mary Lannoye, in Hummel's phrase, "took a bullet" in accepting the blame at this week's hearing for what a departmental spokesman called "the situation" regarding the overruns. The spokesman, when asked if there was a political motive in delaying notification of lawmakers, said "absolutely not."
He added that Lannoye wanted to get a full handle on the figures and present an accurate picture to lawmakers.
But the House Fiscal Agency noted a problem with one argument cited by Lannoye.
She said her office didn't know the extent of the problem until the books on the fiscal year were nearly closed.
"If that excuse were valid, no problem would need to be reported before book closing and -- for all practical purposes, the Legislature's control over the budget would become null and void," the House agency said.
Mary Lannoye is a more capable budgeteer than this whole situation suggests. She has served as budget director for John Engler as well as Jennifer Granholm.
She is so highly regarded by the governor that she is being named as her chief of staff.
Maybe the administration in Lansing is telling the truth about the late reporting of the budget overruns.
But given the governor's emphasis on producing balanced budgets during her re-election campaign, there is plenty of reason to suspect pressure may have been applied to keep the overruns quiet -- which means a GOP-controlled state Senate will have to keep a very sharp eye on future numbers crunching in Lansing.
"Today, Michigan and the nation are in mourning at the loss of one of our great citizens. President Gerald Ford served our country with great distinction, and as the only President from Michigan, he has made our state tremendously proud. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family. We look not to mourn the death of this great man for too long, but to celebrate and reflect upon his life and works. He will be missed."
As a very political year approaches an end, and a new presidential election cycle looms, it’s a good time for conservatives to step back from partisan politics and reflect on their cause.
