Up North Progressive

In a bid to save his 2011 corporate tax cuts of $1.8 billion dollars from the Michigan state budget, today Governor Rick Snyder, in a rare visit to his office in Lansing, signed a bill requiring the state to accept bids from private contractors to operate the Michigan State Police beginning April 1, 2018. Michigan House Bill 1066 is now PA 1022

The Michigan State Police provide a number of services that serve and protect the people of the state of Michigan, including highway patrol, criminal investigations, special services such as SWAT and dive teams, coordinate disaster relief, provide safety inspections for school buses and commercial vehicles, and uphold law enforcement standards for the state.

“I believe in competitive bidding — versus privatization — but we’ve went through the competitive bidding process in the past and we found good answers.” Governor Snyder said in a brief statement at the signing ceremony earlier this morning. “After successfully contracting our prison food service and creating our own school district within Detroit Public Schools, we know this is the right route to take in providing the best service for the people of Michigan. It will save us money and hopefully provide better service.”

“The Michigan State Police have chauffeured me back and forth from Ann Arbor to Lansing and back for years now, and I know they do a good job.” Snyder added, “They also do a good job providing security, but at forty thousand to sixty thousand dollars salary per trooper plus benefits, there has to be some streamlining possible.”

The Michigan State Police refused to return all calls requesting comment.