News Releases

Statement on State of Michigan Budget

Posted September 2, 2009

On Wednesday, August 5, several statewide human service advocacy groups, including the Michigan Catholic Conference, conducted a press conference at the State Capitol urging the Legislature not to balance the state’s budget deficit on the backs of the poor. The message was included in a letter signed by 27 organizations calling for an end to the “shared pain” approach to balancing the $1.8 billion deficit.

“Considering the abortion business’s own research indicates that public funding more than doubles the number of abortions, it is challenging to recognize Congresswoman Kilpatrick’s vote as anything but a nod to the abortion industry,” said the Conference.

That both Democrats and Republicans in the House and Senate have already offered their support for these measures, combined with the fact that nothing in this package of bills reverses the outcome of Proposal 2, should allow for Michigan to take its first step toward transparency in human embryo research.

MCC Vice President for Public Policy Paul A. Long made the following comments on yesterday’s legislative activity that saw over $300 million cut from the current fiscal year budget to balance the state’s $1.3 billion deficit.

Earlier this year the Obama administration announced plans to rescind recently implemented regulations that provide conscience protections for individual and institutional health care providers, and today the Michigan Catholic Conference welcomed a state Senate resolution expressing the body’s opposition to the administration’s plan.

Michigan Catholic Conference has expressed significant reservations about the interests of Senators Debbie Stabenow and Carl Levin to work for the quality and safe education of all students, especially the poor. The Conference’s concern follows the votes of Michigan’s two U.S. senators against an amendment that sought to protect the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program.

Michigan Catholic Conference Vice President for Public Policy Paul A. Long released the following statement regarding an executive order to be issued by President Obama that permits federal tax-payer funding of embryonic stem cell research.

Michigan Catholic Conference Vice President for Public Policy Paul Long made the following statement regarding a study in the online journal Nature, and reported in the Washington Post, that stem cell researchers have discovered an additional way to pursue stem cell research while avoiding the destruction of embryos.

For two years low-income Michigan workers have been told by the State that tax relief is on its way, but now some elected officials are calling for this tax relief to be halted.

Statement on State of Michigan Budget

Human Service Advocacy Groups to Legislature “The Price of Shared Pain is Too Costly”

MCC Criticizes Congresswoman Kilpatrick’s Vote to Support Public Funding of Abortion in D.C.

MCC Offers Support for Embryo Research Transparency Legislation

Passage of Budget Cutting Executive Order “A Clear Indication of Michigan’s Dire Economic Condition’

MCC Welcomes Senate Resolution Opposing Federal Efforts to Eliminate Conscience Regulation

Catholic Conference Questions Sens. Stabenow and Levin’s Commitment to Quality Education for Poor Students

Embryonic Stem Cell Research Executive Order Places Politics Ahead of Science, Says Michigan Catholic Conference

MCC Welcomes Announcement of Safe Stem Cell Research Advancement

Catholic Conference to Legislators: “Stand With the Working Poor by Protecting Earned Income Tax Credit’