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Thursday, November 06, 2008 Granholm Asks US Government To Aide Michigan Auto Industry
LANSING - Governor Jennifer Granholm said Thursday she is asking for the U.S. government to move quickly on a series of proposals geared towards stimulating and protecting the state's economy, particularly the battered auto industry. She also outlined four priorities for legislative action in the lame duck session that she said would help promote job development in Michigan. One lame-duck priority would also be proposals to try and reduce home foreclosures in the state, she said. Such a proposal could allow for a 90-day freeze on foreclosures. Other lame duck priorities are winning an agreement on expanding Cobo Convention Center in Detroit, getting an agreement for development of a light rail system along the Woodward Corridor in metro Detroit and completing action on promise zone legislation that will help communities allow residents to attend colleges free of tuition costs. That list does not exclude other lame duck proposals such as eliminating the surcharge on the Michigan Business Tax, Ms. Granholm said. In fact, she wants to see that surcharge eliminated as part of an agreement to reduce Department of Corrections costs. In addition, in a far-ranging press conference where she also discussed executive order budget cuts and state funds to banks and credit unions (see related stories), Ms. Granholm also said the state would accelerate its efforts to attract companies into Michigan by trade missions and other efforts. She goes next week on a mission to Israel and Jordan, and wants to expand some of those efforts to help bring more companies into the state. At the press conference, Granholm, who has been named to the Obama transition team, expressed delight with the electoral results on Tuesday, saying the election of President-elect Barack Obama and more Democrats to Congress and the Legislature showed that the public wanted proposals and priorities that provide greater protection to the public. Granholm said she had sent a letter to U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-California) and U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nevada) urging that they enact a series of steps that could help the state. Chief among these are steps to provide additional assistance to the auto industries. While the federal government has agreed to provide $25 billion to allow the companies to retool plants for production of new types of cars and trucks, the companies need bridge financing to help them through this period where cash flow problems are extreme. Auto company financial reports are expected to show steep losses, following declining sales. In her letter Granholm said, "(A)ssistance must be provided to this critical industry to avoid unthinkable layoffs that could devastate the middle class in Michigan and other auto-heavy states." However, the letter also calls for the federal government to expand unemployment benefits by another 13 weeks. Granholm urged Congress to boost investments in infrastructure projects, saying the state could immediately begin work on 70 different projects that would add more than 4,000 construction jobs. She also called on Congress to provide assistance for houses facing foreclosure through the Troubled Asset Relief Program that was created in the $700 billion bailout of the financial industry. That would be different but in addition to a state foreclosure plan that Granholm called for that would focus on loans made by state chartered institutions. The program Granholm proposed would be similar to one created in North Carolina and would allow the Office of Financial and Insurance Regulation commissioner the power to put up to a 90-day freeze on those foreclosures in order to help customers with workouts on their loans. House Speaker Andy Dillon (D-Redford Twp.) said that action on Cobo and the light rail system were on his lame duck agenda as well as action on the definition of the Detroit Public Schools as a first class school system. He also said the House had identified some areas where the state could save $150 million, which would help pay for the estimated revenue loss under SB 1038 , which would eliminate sales taxes paid on the base of the Michigan Business Tax. But he expected to have a better picture of the state's revenue by the end of the month or early in December. This story was provided by Gongwer News Service. To subscribe, click on Gongwer.Com
Author: Staff Writer Source: Gongwer News Service
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