Refugees. Economy. Redistricting

MSU Today with Russ White

“It’s rightfully been on everyone’s minds,” said Ben Cabanaw, state refugee coordinator in the state’s Office of Global Michigan, and special guest during the Institute’s monthly broadcast. “There’s a lot of details still not known as this time.”

Estimates are that more than 3.6 million people have fled Ukraine in the wake of Russia’s attack on its neighboring country.

This month’s podcast features Host Arnold Weinfeld, IPPSR associate director, IPPSR Director Dr. Matt Grossmann and MSU economist Charles Ballard. Podcasts predicted the conflict in Ukraine will likely have lingering economic effects and traced legal questions about redistricting as statewide candidates file for 2022 elections.

“We can always find that Michigan is quite connected to events that occur all over the world,” Grossmann said.

Michigan is a welcoming state, Cabanaw said, and his office within the state Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity works with local health, education and nonprofit agencies to resettle refugees into new housing, schools, and employment.

Between last fall and this spring, his office helped Michigan to welcome about 1,800 refugees from Afghanistan and provides ongoing support services to about 3,000 people each year, he said.

Public and media interest ebbs and flows with each international crisis posing, a challenge for continuing refugee support, Cabanaw said. “We try to use this moment to educate and advocate. Michigan is traditionally a welcoming state and provides a lot of support for the programming that we do,” he said.

Michigan’s Legislature is also settling the state’s budget with tax cut proposals as a better-than-expected economy and federal pandemic relief funds yield surplus state finances.

“The recession caused by COVID turned out not to be as severe as many of us feared,” Ballard said. He cautioned the state will still need to pay its bills should tax cuts be too generous. “Once you cut a tax, it’s hard to bring it back,” he said.

With balanced budgets required in nearly every state, states have funds to cut taxes and increase spending at the same time, Grossmann said. “They’re good times to be a state legislator or governor. You have lots of goodies to give out, some from the federal government and some from unexpected surpluses.”

Candidates for variety of statewide offices are filing now for upcoming political party conventions and primary votes under new election districts. While state courts and the U.S. Supreme Court are now ruling on legal redistricting challenges, Michigan’s early filings indicate candidates expect to run under the new district boundaries, Grossmann said.