REPRESENTATIVE TOM MEYER

For long as anyone can remember, Lansing politicians have put off the tough choices needed to balance our state's budget. Tax shifts, fee increases and accounting gimmicks were used to delay the hard reality that state government was living beyond its means.

The governor's proposed budget this year is built on nearly $300 million in tax increases and shifts. Instead of re-evaluating our resources and prioritizing our expenses like a family or business, state government continued down the path of least resistance, approving bloated budgets the taxpayers of this state could not support.

The result has been consecutive years of fragile state budgets, undependable support for our most important priorities like education, and an economic recession that has left Michigan with the highest unemployment rate in the nation.

My Republican colleagues and I got together in January and decided that enough was enough. I made a commitment then to the citizens of the Thumb and Michigan that we would help put an end to the short-term solutions used to balance the state's oversized budget. My colleagues and I supported a process that identifies our top priorities as a state, and then spends the people's tax dollars only on those priorities Michigan can afford.

We believe Michigan taxpayers have paid enough, and will not ask them for a penny more.

Just last week, House Republicans approved a plan to balance the state budget without raising taxes or relying on gimmicks. I am proud to support this plan.

The House Republican budget will increase spending on important areas like education by providing an increase of $175 per pupil. Our plan keeps the state's commitment to our most vulnerable citizens - infants, the disabled and the elderly. Our plan also provides $963,000 for building and track improvements at county and state fairs, and implements new funding of $80,000 to Future Farmers of America programs and $20,000 to Michigan 4-H programs.

Not all the choices in the budget will be easy, and some tough decisions had to be made to create a plan that focused on our most important priorities as a state. After years of rampant government spending, not all of the decisions we will make to get our budget in order will be popular.

But to invest in our top priorities, and get our economy on solid footing, we must be willing to make bold decisions again.

At the end of the day, we are faced with the same decisions families make at the dinner table every night - how much can we afford to spend and how can we best spend it. We are confident the House Republican budget will provide the families and job providers of our community with the best possible return on the tax dollars they send to Lansing every day.

We are hopeful that Gov. Granholm will abandon the budget proposal she made several months ago which contained almost $300 million in new and increased taxes in favor of the plan presented by House Republicans, which will balance our books and get state government living within its means again.

Working together, we will chart a new direction for our state that gets our budget and our economy back on track.

Rep. Meyer, of Bad Axe, can be contacted toll free at (888) 254-5284.