|
Watkins Encourages
Voters To Defeat Proposal 4
Constitutional Amendment Will Tie Hands of Lawmakers As
They Grapple With Current and Future
Budget Shortfalls
from MDE Press Release,
September 30, 2002
For more articles on disabilities and special ed visit
www.bridges4kids.org.
Michigan Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Watkins
opposes a November ballot proposal
which would amend the Constitution
to mandate the way the state can manage its tobacco settlement
revenue.
“From a Constitutional perspective, we cannot handcuff a new
group of state legislators as they tackle
the state’s budgetary crisis
in January. They will need flexibility, not albatrosses tied
around their necks,” Watkins
said. “The ‘Healthy Michigan’ ballot proposal also
denies all future Governors a line-item veto on
use of these funds and would
almost completely eliminate legislative oversight of all state
expenditures.”
Watkins also argues that dollars allocated
under Proposal 4 (Proposal 02-4), if passed, would go to
mostly private organizations
that did not exist before Proposal 4 was created. These
organizations, he said, could
then spend public money almost completely free from
public scrutiny.
If Michigan voters approve it, Proposal 4 could
also effectively kill the Michigan Merit Award
Scholarship Program by
requiring that Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement dollars
would be distributed only to certain
health-related organizations and providers.
“This ballot proposal is not about debating the
merits of the Merit Program - that’s a discussion for
another time and place,”
Watkins said. “Proposal 4 limits the state’s ability to
preserve these and other state
resources for our schools and children, and that is why I
encourage Michigan’s voters to defeat Proposal 4 in
November.”
Since its implementation, the Merit Award
Scholarship Program has helped decrease the high costs
associated with obtaining a college education for
138,000 students and jeopardizes the award for the
250,000 students who already
have qualified for future scholarships.
Watkins Encourages Voters To Defeat
Proposal 4 Constitutional
Amendment Will Tie Hands of Lawmakers As They Grapple
With Current and Future
Budget Shortfalls.
| 