From: Whipple, Deb (GOV)
Sent: Friday, December 04, 2009
4:27 PM
Subject: What the Governor is talking about today
What the Governor’s Talking about
Today
Friday, December 4, 2009
Governor Attending Revenue
Sharing Meetings Next Week in Flint,
Southgate
Governor Goes to D.C. to
Advocate for Job-Creation Strategies
Governor, Lt. Governor
Urge Attorney General to Pursue Every Legal Means to Keep Asian Carp Out of
Great Lakes
Governor Attending Revenue Sharing
Meetings Next Week in Flint, Southgate
Next week the governor will attend regional
meetings with local government and public safety officials in Flint and
Southgate to talk about the impact that revenue sharing cuts have had on their
communities, and the need to restore funding. The governor attended a
similar regional meeting today in Grand Rapids where she heard from West
Michigan leaders.
Key messages:
• Revenue sharing cuts have contributed to
now having 2,000 fewer police officers and 2,400 fewer professional fire
fighters protecting our communities than we had in 2001. We need to
restore funding for revenue sharing to prevent further erosion in the numbers of
police officers and fire fighters in Michigan.
• When revenue sharing
cuts force local governments to lay off personnel or not fill open positions, it
harms our communities and is a drag on our state and national recovery efforts.
• This is also an economic development issue. We are working to
diversify Michigan’s economy and create jobs. To attract and retain
businesses, communities must be able to provide police and fire protection, good
roads, water and sewer systems and other essential services.
Governor Goes to D.C. to Advocate for
Job-Creation Strategies
The governor was in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday
and Thursday along with other Democratic governors to advocate for policy
changes and job-creation strategies that can be particularly beneficial for
states like Michigan that have been hardest hit by the nation’s economic crisis.
“As Washington explores more ways to create jobs, it’s imperative
that it hears from governors about what we’re seeing on the ground,” the
governor said. “We need to be even more aggressive about stimulating new
job creation in states across the country and that we’re really doing all we can
to ensure that the new, green products and technologies this nation needs are
made in America by American workers.”
The governor discussed
job-creation strategies under consideration in Washington, including tax policy
changes that could create new jobs, additional investments in infrastructure,
and extending credit to small businesses and manufacturers to diversify their
operations. She also requested federal funds to help keep the jobs of
Michigan police officers, fire fighters and teachers, jobs that could be lost
because of reduced revenue sharing payments and cuts in the state’s K-12
budget.
Governor, Lt. Governor Urge Attorney
General to Pursue Every Legal Means to Keep Asian Carp Out of Great
Lakes
On Wednesday the governor and Lt. Governor
Cherry urged Attorney General Mike Cox to vigorously pursue every legal means to
prevent Asian carp from entering the Great Lakes.
“The Great Lakes’
ecosystem is at risk and because of the importance of the Great Lakes to
Michigan’s economy, we urge you to vigorously pursue every legal tool at your
disposal as Michigan’s attorney general to prevent the ecological disaster that
will occur if Asian carp are allowed into the Great Lakes,” said the governor
and lieutenant governor in a letter to Cox. “Michigan’s $4.5 billion sport
and commercial fishery is in jeopardy.”
Asian carp can grow to more
than four feet long and weigh up to 100 pounds. They are voracious feeders
and overwhelm native species. The carp may have breached the electric fish
barrier on the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal which connects the Mississippi
River system with the Great Lakes.
The Granholm administration has
moved aggressively to block Asian carp from entering the Great Lakes. The
administration’s actions include:
• Prohibiting possession of
live Asian carp in Michigan
• Providing direct financial support for
the electrical barrier in 2004
• Providing staffing, materials and
equipment for the upcoming emergency response along with other states and
Canadian provinces.
Recently, Lt. Governor Cherry wrote the
Undersecretary of the Army to urge additional actions to protect the Great
Lakes, including the completion of the second portion of the new barrier, full
utilization of the existing barrier now operating at minimal levels, creating a
physical barrier to block carp from entering via other waterways during
flooding, and using all existing congressional authorities to block the carp’s
entry.
Key messages:
• The governor has taken aggressive steps to
protect the Great Lakes from the Asian carp threat.
• The introduction
of Asian carp into the Great Lakes would have a devastating impact on both the
Great Lakes sport and commercial fishery and the lakes’ ecosystem.
Allowing the Asian carp into the Great Lakes system could potentially cause a
collapse of the Great Lakes food web.
• Half measures to stop the
introduction of Asian carp into the Great Lakes are unacceptable, and we do not
accept that the spread of the carp into the Great Lakes is
inevitable.
• The federal government and the state of Illinois must
stop Asian carp from entering the Great Lakes, and Michigan stands ready to
help.
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