Page 49 - Paul Egan News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

Whitmer has urged Michiganders to support local and in-state businesses, particularly during the pandemic. A campaign spokesman says it was all a mistake. "The Whitmer for Governor campaign has always worked closely with union- and Michigan-based printers, and will continue to do so in the future," said campaign spokesman Christopher Mills. "The vendor error has been corrected to ensure that the campaign can continue to support our relationship with local union printers." The fundraising plea arrived at many Michigan households Tuesday with an envelope showing Whitmer at a construction site a...

Paul Egan Detroit Free Press LANSING – Though Gov. Gretchen Whitmer proposed no tax increases in her 2022 budget last week, the budget calls for increases to more than 140 fees for state government services, ranging from getting a traffic crash report from the Michigan State Police to getting a permit to develop areas designated as wetlands. The proposed fee increases, which are all double-digit or triple-digit in percentage terms, would raise an extra $27.6 million annually for state government, if approved by the Legislature. That's a tiny addition to a $67-billion state budget, but s...

LANSING – Gov. Gretchen Whitmer targeted education and help for unemployed people in a $67.1-billion state budget unveiled Thursday that she said is aimed at ensuring the state recovers quickly from the economic shock of the coronavirus pandemic. Improving bridges, roads and other state infrastructure is also a major focus of the budget plan, which proposes no tax increases. In terms of priorities, Whitmer said her 2022 spending plan cannot be separated from a $5.6-billion supplemental spending plan for 2021 that she requested in January as a major coronavirus recovery package. It...

Detroit Free Press LANSING — Not just roads, but bridges and dams will be targeted for extra funding in the 2022 state budget and a new supplemental spending plan for this year, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said Tuesday. Whitmer, in her first detailed discussion of the budget plan that will be presented to the Legislature Thursday, told the Free Press her plan will include $300 million from the state general fund to repair or replace up to 129 local bridges that are in serious or critical condition. That's on top of the record $3.6 billion in proposed capital spending on roads in 2021 — up fr...

Paul Egan Detroit Free Press LANSING – The director of the Michigan State Police has instructed his officers to remove "non-standard" applications such as the text messaging app Signal from their state phones by Wednesday and to seek authorization before downloading such apps in the future. The new policy, issued Monday by Col. Joseph Gasper, follows a series of articles in the Free Press about use by senior MSP officials of the free-to-the-user app Signal, which can be used to evade the Michigan Freedom of Information Act and legal discovery. A copy of the memo was released by the depart...