KALAMAZOO (WKZO-AM) — Local citizens and elected officials are calling on lawmakers to approve what they call “a people’s budget,” as the legislature prepares to work on the 2017 state spending plan.
They made the statement at Martin Luther King Jr. Park in Kalamazoo on Thursday.
Linda Teeter, the Director of Priorities Michigan said they forget the budget isn’t just an accounting exercise, it impacts real people.
“It is time for the budget to be crafted, a people’s budget, that begins the serve the needs of all people, making sure that everyone pays their fair share,” Teeter said.
Vice Mayor Don Cooney called on state lawmakers to put more money into people and less into tax breaks.
“A just society is a society where everyone has access to what they need to lead a full human life,” Cooney said. “That is not what’s happening in our state today.”
Also in attendance were three city commissioners and two members of the Kalamazoo County Board of Commissioners.
– John McNeill
