WEST BY NORTHWEST: The Grand River is shown in Lansing near the Brenke Fish ladder, part of its 252-mile length. (courtesy photo/used under Creative Commons license) Spring is here and, for me, that means heading down to Liberty, near Jackson, to visit the headwaters of the Grand River. I feel lucky to know the spot […]
Jackson
Posted inMichigan Government
In some cities, it's cash that's burning
In Michigan, your home address says everything about how much you spend for fire protection. In Midland, a city of 41,000, residents paid $155 per person in 2010 for their Fire Department. But in Wyoming, a West Michigan city of about 72,000, they paid less than half that, $59 per capita. Fire departments spend about $400 million […]
Posted inMichigan Government
Negotiating with 'heroes' no simple matter
In 2009, Ann Arbor became the poster child for critics of Michigan’s public safety binding arbitration law, as a labor settlement cost the city $1.5 million in retroactive pay raises. The judgment came as police and fire departments consumed 55 percent ofAnn Arbor’s budget and the city stared down a $2.4 million deficit. The case […]
Posted inLand O Links
Land O Links
“Reading furnishes the mind only with materials of knowledge; it is thinking that makes what we read ours” — John Locke, 17th century English philosopher * Propublica says the EPA has a report linking fracking chemicals to an instance of groundwater contamination in Wyoming. This has huge import for the state of Michigan, where hydrofracturing, […]
Posted inBusiness Watch
All Michigan regions grew in 2010
Michigan’s regional economies surged ahead in 2010, propelled by a surprisingly robust manufacturing sector and solid growth from the “information economy.” The latest figures are a positive pivot from a decade that saw most Michigan regions lag economically. Between 2001 and 2009, 11 of 14 Michigan metropolitan areas recorded declines in real gross domestic product […]
Posted inBusiness Watch
Scoring the '00s: How Michigan's 14 regions changed
Despite billions of dollars in construction projects on the University of Michigan’s campus and Ann Arbor’s reputation as a high-tech business hotbed, the regional economy there contracted slightly over the past decade. Gross domestic product in the Ann Arbor metro area fell 1 percent between 2001 and 2009 as several major businesses left town. Pfizer […]