Woo hoo - we're up to our necks in $898 million worth of debt. That's right, our state is past scraping the bottom of the barrel. The only thing that softens the blow only slightly is that we did manage to bring this down from last year's shortfall.
Lansingites should prepare to batten down the hatches and hang on for dear life. If Stevyn over at Lansing Sucks is right, we could be looking at a very grim next year. Let's put it this way: Lansing's two biggest employers are the state and the university (which relies on a lot of state money). The city's third biggest employer, General Motors, has been on the decline on and off for years, and I can't imagine that the next year is going to be good for them either.
Last year, the state allowed nearly forty percent of some departments to retire. Unfortunately, this coincided with a marked demand for state services, especially in the unemployment and welfare departments. And still they talk about cuts. MSU layed off about 200 faculty, staff, and administrators last year as the decline has already led to a more than 10 percent decline in state funding. Higher education has already been slated for cutting. The only thing the Governor has promised will remain intact is the state funding for K-12 schools.
It figures. We'll turn Lansing into a cool city (though technically it already is one, because they've paired it with East Lansing) and people won't have the money to come.
10:09:35 PM 
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