COLDWATER, MI (WTVB) – Branch County Administrator Bud Norman is taking note of what he calls various odds and ends that he says could affect local communities. Norman first turns to University of Michigan’s Quantitative Economics Director George Fulton who told the January Consensus Revenue Estimating Conference panel members that the state should recover 62% of the jobs lost during the Great Recession by 2017.
Despite the legislature’s rejection of start-up funding for the project, the Michigan State Lottery, using existing funds, quietly launched its iLottery online gaming program late last year.
Norman also passes along that that Representative Peter Lucido, a Shelby Township Republican, is sponsoring legislation requiring high school students to pass a civics test—akin to an immigration citizenship exam—in order to graduate.
And finally, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports the percentage of unionized Michigan workers fell significantly in 2014, dropping to 14.5% last year compared to 16.3% in 2013.
