News Flash

Members elect leadership team, again

June 2008 ballot tally
for Local 547 officers

Office	Candidate Name	# of Votes	% of Votes
Business Manager	Philip Schloop	752	79%
	Gary Lucy	198	21%
Vice President	Rick Loos	523	56%
	Ronald Diebel	257	27%
	Gary Lucy	155	17%
Recording-Corresponding Sec'y	Eric Karteczka	661	74%
	Steven Goebel	233	26%
Financial Secretary	Garie Thomas-Bass	636	71%
	John Goins	265	29%
Treasurer	James Angus	536	60%
	Sue Drobot	351	40%
Trustee	Michael Hasler	664	28%
(3 Positions)	Rachel Howell	677	29%
	Kevin Seiler	701	30%
	Dave Robin	300	13%
Auditor	Thornell Curry	511	21%
(3 Positions)	Rich Flis	586	24%
	Linda Lowe	641	26%
	Ben Gibson	284	11%
	Timothy Gladney	230	9%
	John Goins	212	9%

 

Congratulations Letter from Mark Gaffney, President of the Michigan State AFL-CIO

 

When school lets out, the Summer Food Service Program offers summer activities and FREE nutritious meals to children 18 years and younger! Children attending "open" sites in eligible neighborhoods can participate without completing any application papers.

All meals meet the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, so you know your child will be eating a healthy meal

Many sites offer fun and supervised activities for your child during summer

For more information on SFSP sites and other nutrition programs that may help your family, call: Food and Nutrition Program Helpline at 800-481-4989.

For a list of sponsors in each county, who may offer one or more sites, go to: www.michigan.gov/sfsp.

For information on emergency food sources in your community, call the Food Bank Council of Michigan at 800-552-4483.

 

 

Prison spending outpacing higher ed funding

For every dollar Michigan taxpayers spent on higher education in 2007, the state spent $1.19 on locking up its prisoners, making it one of only five states in the country where state corrections spending outpaced higher education spending, according to a Pew Foundation study released this week.

In 1987, Michigan spent 38 cents on corrections for every dollar spent on higher education, making the comparison between '87 and '07 the nation's second-most dramatic funding ratio shift.

The numbers didn't get past Michael BOULUS, executive director of the Presidents Council, State Universities of Michigan, who reiterated that not properly funding higher education endangers the state's economy. The study came on the back of a second report that showed while state funding for higher education grew by 7.7 percent in Fiscal Year (FY) 2007 nationwide, Michigan's increase was 1.7 percent when funding for scholarships and other programs were factored into the mix.

"The cold reality is that Michigan needs to boost spending by even more or fall further behind our competitors," Boulus said. "Research shows that in states with more college graduates, all workers — even those who do not have a four-year degree — tend to have higher incomes."

The Pew study, "One in 100, Behind Bars In America 2008," revealed numbers that showed that states, in general, are spending more of its money locking people up than educating them. Nationwide, states spent 78 cents on corrections for every $1 spent on higher education in 2007, up from 32 cents for every $1 on higher education in 1987.

Overall, the study showed that the number of people behind bars in the United States climbed in 2007 to more than one in every 100 adults.

Michigan was one of only 14 states that saw its prison population drop over the year, but Michigan still had the nation's seventh-highest prison population. Michigan is the nation's eighth-largest state by population.

Michigan ranks in the middle of the pack in terms of number of inmates per 100,000 residents, but its ratio is higher than any other Midwest state. The Great Lakes state locks up 663 people per 100,000 residents. Ohio incarcerates 559. Louisiana locks up 1,138. Most of the southern states are somewhere between 800 and 1,100.

Michigan had 50,326 people in its state prisons in 2007, down from 51,577 in 2006, a 2.4 percent decrease. Only four other states had greater decreases between the two years, according to the survey.

The Pew study also found that Michigan had 12.8 percent of its state employees working in corrections, the 12th highest percentage among the 50 states. Texas was No. 1 with 16.9 percent and North Dakota was last with 3.8 percent.