Rail Summit
Following his speech on transportation and infrastructure last week, Governor Rick Snyder will address a summit today that will focus on improving the state’s rail service. “Michigan has 540 miles of publicly owned rail. The governor has called for improving and expanding that system to move people and cargo more quickly and efficiently. The governor says he will seek more federal dollars and wants part of vehicle registration fees to be used for improving mass transit… The governor’s plans for the state include making Michigan a central point in a regional business corridor that runs from Chicago to Toronto,” Rick Pluta reports.
Flint Financial Review
Today is the deadline Governor Snyder set to complete a review of the city of Flint’s finances. Steve Carmody reports:
When he appointed the financial review panel in September, Governor Snyder said he wanted to hear back from them by the end of October. However, what the governor will hear is unclear. As of Friday, a governor’s office spokeswoman said the review team was still analyzing its data. The financial review panel could recommend a variety of options to the governor. They include giving Flint’s elected leaders more power to deal with budget decisions or handing over power to a state appointed emergency manager. Flint city officials have said they hope to avoid a state takeover similar to the one in 2002.
MI Helps the Northeast
CMS Energy, a Michigan-based power company, will send some 70 employees to assist crews in New Jersey who are trying to restore power to customers who lost electricity after this weekend’s snowstorm. “At least 3 million people from Maine to Maryland have lost power in the unseasonably early storm that dumped heavy, wet snow… Authorities blame a least three deaths on the weather, and states of emergency are in effect in New Jersey, Connecticut, Massachusetts and parts of New York,” the AP reports.
