Rep. George Cushingberry, Gongwer News Service reports, was the only Democrat today on a key budget committee to help push through a plan to eliminate the Michigan Promise Scholarships. But students and their families should cut the Detroiter some slack. I doubt Cushingberry has much feel for what it means to make ends meet anymore.
I make that claim for the following reasons.
First, he receives $79,650 as the base salary as a legislator. That’s far more than I suspect most of his constiuents earn.
He receives first-class health and retirement benefits — benefits of a caliber that are rapidly vanishing from the world non-legislators inhabit.
Cushingberry, like all House members, also gets money to operate a legislative office an dhire staff.
Like all legislators, he also receives $12,000 a year from the state for expenses. Translation: a slush fund.
But even all that isn’t enough for Cushingberry. He also started in 2007 a so-called “527” political account called the “Northwest Detroit Leadership Account.” In the first six months of 2009, this account raised $26,960 and spent $21,250.
On what, you may ask?
Well, $12,400 of the expenses went to one George Cushingberry for “reimbursement of officeholder expenses.”
It seems all the money taxpayers give Cushingberry to do his job just won’t cut it. But with so much money flying around, it’s hard to expect Cushingberry to understand the worries a regular Michigan family might have.
