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The latest on the Key Bridge collapse, New York puts forth legislation to get clean energy projects on the grid and Wisconsin and other states join a federal summer food program to help feed kids across the country.

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Republicans float conspiracy theories on the collapse of Baltimore's Key Bridge, South Carolina's congressional elections will use a map ruled unconstitutional, and the Senate schedules an impeachment trial for Homeland Secretary Mayorkas.

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Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

Catch 22: Proposed Cuts Will Increase Demand for Programs Slated for Cuts

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Monday, March 7, 2011   

LANSING, Mich. - There's concern that Michigan's working poor and those in poverty will lose cash and access to some health care programs if both Gov. Snyder and Congress get approval on their proposed budgets. Michigan families could lose the state's Earned Income Tax Credit, which equates to an average annual cash refund of about $450 dollars each, and other widely-used programs through community mental health could be less accessible.

Maxine Thome, executive director of National Association of Social Workers-Michigan, says those are just the state cuts. In addition - if Congress gets its way - services provided by federally-funded Planned Parenthood and Community Health Centers would also be stymied. When families have reduced access to those kinds of services and tax-breaks, it creates new sets of problems for society, Thome says, including increases in homelessness, incarceration, substance abuse, domestic violence, infant mortality and more.

"I'd like to see legislators get out in the field and meet with people who are homeless, who are poor, who are the working poor. And I think it's critical for people to understand that they need to tell their stories to their legislators. If they keep quiet, legislators have no idea of the impact of these cuts."

No one is talking about it, but Thome says now is the time for residents to seriously consider another option for avoiding cuts and generating revenue.

"It's time to look at taxation. People have talked in this state for a long time about putting a tax on beer, putting a tax on services. Those taxes would cut across the board without taking such deep hits at the middle-class and the poor."

A new poll shows nearly 60 percent of Michigan residents want the Earned Income Tax Credit to remain in place, Thome adds.

More information is available at www.saveoureitc.com.




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