LANSING – In advance of the Revenue Estimating Conference set for later this week, where the news is expected to be bleak, an interview released on Tuesday with an economist from the Mackinac Center for Public Policy painted a picture just as grim that included unemployment projections as high as 20 percent by the end of the year.
David Littman, the center’s senior economist, said that with the continued downward spiral of the auto industry, which he said was up to 30 percent of the state’s tax base, he predicts the jobless rate will reach 17 percent to 20 percent.
As for how the General Motors and Chrysler plan to bail themselves out, he said bankruptcy and other tactics to shore up company sustainability that uses taxpayer money is “a one way street” with “zero profitability.”
Littman said that state revenues will continue to plummet, as will revenues to local economies.
This story was provided by Gongwer News Service. To subscribe, click on Gongwer.Com
a>>
