Friday, January 16, 2009

House Speaker Andy Dillon Outlines Legislative Goals. The economy is causing a lot of pain, so state lawmakers should join it by cutting their pay and health benefits, House Speaker Andy Dillon, D-Redford Township, told the newly sworn-in House on Wednesday. But that would affect future lawmakers, not current ones. In remarks after he was elected to a second term as speaker, Dillon also said a streamlined state government must do more to help people facing job losses, home foreclosures and mediocre schools. The pay and benefit cuts were among populist themes Dillon struck in a short address, which urged an end to partisan bickering. Dillon called for an overhaul of state taxes, including a possible ballot issue to cut property taxes for homeowners whose home values have dropped. He said he'll push to create statewide, mandatory catastrophic health insurance to cover uninsured and some insured individuals. Dillon also called for repeal of the 22% surcharge on the state's business tax -- a repeal approved by the Republican-controlled Senate in 2008 but not by the Democratic-controlled House. For the full article, see Christ Christoff, "Dillon calls for tax reform, lawmaker cuts", Detroit Free Press, January 15, 2009. [Red Tape Blog] 2:47:03 PM     Celebrate the Inauguration with Us When you live here in Washington, it's hard not to be aware of the historic events we'll host next week. For weeks, everyone's been speculating about how many people will converge on the nation's capital to witness Barack Obama's inauguration. I don't know that I trust any of the predictions, but I do know that for every person who comes, thousands more will be participating from home in spirit. For all of you who will be following the festivities remotely, Gov Gab is offering you a special treat. We've been lucky enough to get press passes to four official Inaugural events, and we're going to bring you a citizen's eye view of all the action! With help from our colleagues at USA.gov and GobiernoUSA.gov, we'll be using Twitter and this blog to share stories, real-time updates, photos, and more. We're pretty excited, not only to attend these events, but also to be the first government agency to use social media tools to give citizens a behind-the-scenes look at these special parts of our national life. Here's a rundown of the events we plan to cover: The opening ceremony on Sunday afternoon at the Lincoln Memorial, with big name singers like Herbie Hancock, Beyonce, Garth Brooks, and more The Kids' Inaugural Concert on Monday afternoon at the Verizon Center, with performers including The Jonas Brothers and Miley Cyrus The Swearing-In Ceremony on Tuesday morning at the Capitol The Commander-In-Chief's Ball on Tuesday evening at the National Building Museum. But before the excitement begins, we have a pressing question. What do you want to know about these events? What would you like us to cover? The performers, the venues, the attendees? Just our personal experiences? We'll do our best to bring you as much of the information you'd like as possible-just please remember that we're still experimenting with all the tools we'll be using. Hey, if you have suggestions for how to make our coverage better, please tell us that, too! - Editor [Gov Gab: Your U.S. Government Blog] 2:46:10 PM

© Copyright 2009 Jocelyn Shaw. Last update: 2/2/2009; 12:11:08 PM. Photo curtesy of Marjorie O'Brien