By Rick Pluta, Michigan Public Radio Network
LANSING, MI – Governor Granholm says she's not convinced a plan to put 400,000 public employees into a statewide insurance pool will produce big savings. The plan was rolled out last week by state House Speaker Andy Dillon. Like Granholm, Dillon is a Democrat.
But they appear to be at odds about his plan, which has also been criticized by state employee unions. Granholm says the plan does not take appear to take into account concessions that have been made by state employees in response to the budget crisis.
"State employees have given at the office and they are continuing to be asked to sacrifice," she says. "Friday is another furlough day. Well, I want to clarify a misimpression - that somehow the public employees in state government have a gold-plated package, when, in fact, it's less than the private sector."
Dillon says he stands by his numbers - that, eventually, a statewide public employee insurance pool would save taxpayers $900 million.