Governor Whitmer Owes Families, Taxpayers Nursing Home and Budget Transparency
Whitmer, Administration Refuse to Answer Press, Public’s Basic Questions
LANSING, MI, May 28, 2020 – The Michigan Freedom Fund today asked Governor Gretchen Whitmer and senior administration officials to offer the press and the public significantly greater transparency over long-asked and never-answered questions at the heart of the state’s COVID-19 crisis.
Important questions Governor Whitmer has the opportunity to answer include:
1) How many of Michigan’s tragic COVID-19 deaths occurred in nursing homes, or among nursing home patients transferred to other settings?
2) Why did the Governor place COVID-19 positive patients in nursing homes among the state’s most vulnerable instead of hospitals with additional capacity or empty field hospitals? Who in the administration was a part of that decision?
3) Budget cuts will have to be made – and soon – to fill the $2.6 billion budget deficit created by Governor Whitmer’s “stay home” order.
State departments need to begin planning their work with smaller budgets, and residents whose services she may cut deserve the right and the lead-time to begin making alternative arrangements – if available – to meet their unique needs.
What does the Governor propose cutting to balance the state’s budget?
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