As the new bipartisan state budget heads to the governor’s desk we are learning more about how available funds are being allocated across the state and locally.
Maybe the most questionable of the Secretary of State’s proposals is the idea to require absentee ballot applications to be mailed to registered voters every federal election cycle.
Republican Speaker of the House-elect Jason Wentworth immediately took the Governor to task. Wentworth says, “Just days after Christmas and two days before many extended benefits expire, the governor has ended unemployment support for far too many working families.
Since the virus outbreak began in March, the state reports about $22 billion in unemployment benefits have been paid to more than 2.1 million workers. Sounds awesome. But there is another side to the story.
Hall says the idea is to prevent businesses from being forced to pay higher taxes after Gov. Gretchen Whitmer used Executive Orders powers to close them.
Personally sensitive information about an unknown number of Michigan residents is now in the hands of a Democratically connected political strategy organization. No one knows how it has or will be used. Yet.
Marshall Republican State Representative Matt Hall says he is more than frustrated with the Agency’s handling of well over 100 thousand benefits applications that aren’t being processed and the state residents involved are not being contacted.
Last week, lawmakers were told that 134,000 people who filed for unemployment benefits have not received anything. The new update, which isn’t much better, is the number is now 125,000.