Nixon said the state could have nearly $300 million more money than previously anticipated as lawmakers put together budget plans, including slightly better than expected overall tax revenues and changes in caseloads for Medicaid and other services related to the current fiscal year.

The state would close and privatize a 1,300-bed prison in Ionia and three juvenile detention facilities and make significant cuts to prison support staff under budget bills moving quickly through the Legislature.

Teacher and public-employee pensions are in the news nationwide, and Michigan's are not unique. Across the country, pension funds are suffering from the same confluence of factors, including rising health-care costs, falling returns on investment, lax oversight and more.

The state Legislature today is positioned to begin approving legislation completed last week by appropriations committees on budget bills that are generally thriftier than originally proposed by Gov. Rick Snyder.

Lawmakers return from their spring break Tuesday - and back into a tug of war with Gov. Rick Snyder over the state budget that started before their vacation.

State Treasurer Andy Dillon, a member of the 10-person financial review team, said that the team wrote a recommendation letter to Snyder that it preferred to see the city and state enter into a consent agreement.

The financial review team appointed by Gov. Rick Snyder declared Detroit in a financial emergency Wednesday.  Experts disagree on whether Monday is the final deadline for Detroit's elected leaders to approve a consent agreement or face an emergency manager.

The state Department of Corrections will cut back on patrols outside its prison walls and change the job classifications of some corrections officers next month to save an estimated $25 million a year.

Republicans, who control the Senate, have plans to spend roughly $150 million less overall than the GOP governor has proposed for the next fiscal year starting in October due to lower-than-anticipated tax revenue.

Last year, only six states increased overall spending on colleges and universities. While higher education typically takes longer to recover from recessionary cuts than other parts of the budget, experts say they expect the number of states with boosted higher education funding to increase this year.

A coalition of labor unions and liberal groups is set to announce Tuesday a campaign to amend the state constitution to strengthen collective bargaining rights and block attempts by the Legislature to make Michigan a right-to-work state.

Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder's administration plans to save the state money by requiring unionized state workers to take at least four unpaid furlough days off and by introducing legislation requiring them to contribute to their defined benefit retirement plans if they want to keep them.

The state has about one manager or supervisor for every six employees, according to a Civil Service Commission work force report for the third quarter of fiscal 2011.

The administration of Gov. Rick Snyder is delaying the decision on whether to layoff state employees as part of a plan to balance the 2011-12 budget, in an attempt to convince state employee unions to reopen their contracts to provide concessions.

An announcement is expected today on whether officials will issue layoff notices to any of the state's roughly 50,000 employees.

Michigan lawmakers acted illegally when they agreed to take 3 percent from the pay of government employees and earmark it for retirees' health care, the state appeals court ruled.

Unions representing 35,000 of the state's 47,100 workers notified the Office of the State Employer that they will bargain on wages, benefits and other economic issues as part of a new three-year contract to begin Dec. 31.

Governor says he wants labor unions' input on concessions.

No area of public policy in Michigan is more in need of fresh thinking than the relationship between government and its employees. With Michigan's recurring government budget struggles, and with a new Legislature and governor espousing a commitment to performance, efficiency and accountability in government, a new labor law for government employees is imperative.

Governor Snyder's budget cuts $1.2 billion to schools, universities, local governments and asks public employees for $180 million in concessions. Mr. Snyder said that he would set an example by reducing his salary this year to $1.

Converting these statistics into actual budget savings involves a combination of straightforward "eat your vegetables" cuts, and process innovations like privatization that generate savings through "second-order" incentive changes throughout the system.

No area of public policy in Michigan is more in need of fresh thinking than the relationship between government and its employees. With Michigan's recurring government budget struggles, and with a new Legislature and governor espousing a commitment to performance, efficiency and accountability in government, a new labor law for government employees is imperative.

This paper reviews Michigan Public School Employees’ Retirement System and Michigan State Employees’ Retirement System pension and retiree medical benefits and confirms many of the published concerns related to the level of benefits provided and the associated fiscal challenges facing Michigan taxpayers in both the short and long term.

Video of Bob Williams addressing the underfunded state pension fund problem facing so many states.  He states that the public cannot afford the benefits and suggests defined contribution programs as a solution.

Michigan needs to systematically investigate its spending to identify waste and doing so is one step in solving the state's budget crisis.

Suggesting that if Michigan converted all its conventional public schools to charter public schools, without altering current funding formulas, the state would save $3.5 billion, and be a big step towards solving the state's fiscal crisis.

Teacher and public-employee pensions are in the news nationwide, and Michigan's are not unique. Across the country, pension funds are suffering from the same confluence of factors, including rising health-care costs, falling returns on investment, lax oversight and more.

In 21 states, certian public employees can increase their pensions by buying credit for extra years, even though they did not work in those years.

Converting these statistics into actual budget savings involves a combination of straightforward "eat your vegetables" cuts, and process innovations like privatization that generate savings through "second-order" incentive changes throughout the system.

Taxing pensions was one of the cornerstones of Gov. Rick Snyder's overhaul of the state tax system that was approved amid partisan rancor earlier this year and the Michigan Supreme Court approved that plan, but struck down the provisions that would result in raising taxes on higher income earners.

Michigan directly tackled its pension problem in 1997 by replacing the traditional "defined-benefit" pension plan with a 401(k)-style "defined-contribution" retirement plan for new state employees. The Michigan reforms have been immensely successful. Unfortunately, the story in Illinois is not nearly as encouraging.

Michigan spent roughly $925 million on retirement costs last year, about 2 percent of the state's $45.7 billion budget, according to the Senate Fiscal Agency.

Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder's administration plans to save the state money by requiring unionized state workers to take at least four unpaid furlough days off and by introducing legislation requiring them to contribute to their defined benefit retirement plans if they want to keep them.

Michigan lawmakers acted illegally when they agreed to take 3 percent from the pay of government employees and earmark it for retirees' health care, the state appeals court ruled.

Michigan's state legislature passed a broad new tax structure ending a raft of tax credits, replacing the state's complex business tax with a flat corporate tax, while imposing a new pension tax and raising income taxes on residents.

Policy makers across the country are considering scrapping guaranteed retirement benefits for public workers in favor of 401(k)-like plans.

This all boils down to who gets to pick taxpayers' pockets first, public pensioners or municipal bond investors? More people are waking up to the hard reality that when it comes to state and local government, somebody has to lose money over the next few decades. The National Association of Bond Lawyers is worried enough about it to issue "Considerations" for advising clients who think they're getting safe investments.

Despite an organized campaign to stop public pension reform, reality is beginning to break through.  One recent report outlines a possible path to long-term solutions and another details the necessity of states and municipalities finding their own way because federal bailout is impossible.  And Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel released a plan that could have been based on both reports.

A prison privatization bill that aims to lighten the state's giant corrections budget is held up in Michigan's Republican-controlled House.

Hey, young public employees, what are you going to do when your pension checks bounce after you paid in for decades? That is what will happen in many - maybe all - states and municipalities sooner or later if they do not reform right now. If you want to see the future, just look at Illinois. One citizen there did, and came up with a real reform plan that might work.

Public employees should take their pension money now and run to avoid risk of getting reduced benefits - or nothing - in the future. It's the best deal for them and for taxpayers. A growing chorus of credible voices including the Government Accountability Office, a Federal Reserve bank and now the Harvard Kennedy School Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government confirm state and local government finances are "spiraling out of control" and even draconian reforms only make it "more likely" that future benefits will paid in full.

Hey, young public employees, what are you going to do when your pension checks bounce after you paid in for decades? That is what will happen in many - maybe all - states and municipalities sooner or later if they do not reform right now. If you want to see the future, just look at Illinois. One citizen there did, and came up with a real reform plan that might work.

This is what it sounds like when the Federal Reserve Bank screams: "Much has been written about the various headwinds restraining economic activity over the near term. However, our economy also has other headwinds to confront over the medium- to-longer-term. ... the finances of some state and local governments are also under stress and in need of serious adjustments."  - Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland President Sandra Pianalto

Michigan directly tackled its pension problem in 1997 by replacing the traditional "defined-benefit" pension plan with a 401(k)-style "defined-contribution" retirement plan for new state employees. The Michigan reforms have been immensely successful. Unfortunately, the story in Illinois is not nearly as encouraging.

Not only will agricultural subsidies legislation disproportionately affect the budgets of Heartland states, it also may play a more influential role in the upcoming Presidential election than a cursory count of electoral votes and voting trends indicate. 

Weekly of review of union rallies held around the country.

Public sector compensation and retirement benefits have made headlines lately for their sheer size and weight in comparison to the private sector. The problem of unfunded liabilities is decades in the making, but the bills are starting to come due this legislative session. Budget leaders are learning that they won't have decades to undo this disaster.