[magellan]

Originally Posted by YoungTraveler2011

we can start by demolishing all abandoned houses/buildings in detroit.

How would that benefit the State?

[313Weather]

Originally Posted by magellan

How would that benefit the State?

The state's major city (or essentially the gateway into the state for outsiders) won't look as blighted?

Not that I agree with that idea.

[magellan]

Originally Posted by 313Weather

The state's major city (or essentially the gateway into the state for outsiders) won't look as blighted?

Not that I agree with that idea.

I don't disagree with the idea, just don't see how it's related to this thread.

[313Weather]

Originally Posted by magellan

I don't disagree with the idea, just don't see how it's related to this thread.

You don't think demolishing abandoned buildings to make the state's major city appear less blighted isn't a plus for Michigan?

[magellan]

Originally Posted by 313Weather

You don't think demolishing abandoned buildings to make the state's major city appear less blighted isn't a plus for Michigan?

When it comes to the State's budget, only if the cleared land becomes revenue producing again. There's a lot of vacant land in Detroit that is still...vacant.

[Coldjensens]

Originally Posted by 313Weather

The LOGICAL thing to do with this money would be to put it towards a jobs program for the people getting booted of welfare in the worst economy since the 1930s.

But that's wishful thinking, it'll never happen.

How are you going to get them to take jobs?

[scorpio516]

Originally Posted by magellan

Fight brews over possibility of state windfall | Michigan Radio

I don't remember MI having budget surpluses in over a decade. What to do with that money?

Give more to colleges. Get state schools to lower tuition to something reasonable. When tuition to take 16 credits at Central is more than at U of M, somethings wrong (and has been since I got my MBA back in 04-06).

OK, scratch that, UM raised their tuition this year by $1000+/semester. In 2010, CMU was more expensive. Still, as a Freshman at either school, Michigan will only cost $250 more per semester than CMU, and only $700 more than EMU. Central/Eastern/Western/etc should be cheaper options than MSU and UM (MSU is $500 more than U of M). In my little world, I'd hope CMU/EMU would be substantially cheaper, far more than the 4% CMU is vs. UM.

[Coldjensens]

Brand new BMW's for every state representative and a Cadillac for the Governor!

They will probably have to cut back on state employee benefits to cover the insurance costs, but it would be worth it to finally have our politicians in some nice cars.

[Coldjensens]

What they probably need to do is to restore some of the municipality and school funding. However $258 million is not really all that much. It will probably disappear by the time they are done adjusting their numbers.

[michigan83]

Give the money to me so that I can use it to start a big evil corporation. And I'll create jobs one day and then fire people the next, just for fun. Then I'll bulldoze the building, dump all the toxic waste into the Grand River, take the cash and move to Canada under a new name. Sadly, I eventually die a slow and painful death while waiting for a surgery under Canada's health care system. But not before I hire a homeless man to burn all of my cash in front of a crowd of "occupy Wall Street" protesters, all while holding a sign that says "Look how fun my job is! Don't you wish you had one?"

Sorry, I just got on a roll there. What were we talking about again?