It is a life choice that many of us will probably face in the next few years, as our state’s population gets older and requires more attention. Some of us will have to quit our jobs and stay home with a loved one. Others will have to rely on the work of a home health care worker

But a state Senate bill passed last week aimed at eliminating some of Michigan's $942 million budget deficit may soon lower her wages, and her incentives, for doing so.

The Oak Park resident, who three days per week provides assistance as a home care worker to a Detroit senior citizen, said the Republican-backed proposal could break her personal budget - and her heart.

"Could I afford to keep doing this? Probably not," Richardson, 59, said in a quivering voice while seated next to Mildred Lewis, the 71-year-old woman for whom she works. "I came into this just wanting to help. I didn't expect to get this close to someone."

Press secretary Liz Boyd said Granholm would veto the bills, which would cut state aid to schools by $34 per pupil, and among other things reduce Medicaid payments, revenue sharing to local governments, adult home care programs, welfare aid and grants to local bus systems.

"It's mean-spirited and gutless," said Dohn Hoyle, executive director of The Arc Michigan, a Lansing-based group that supports programs for the developmentally disabled.

For 20 years, she had cared for clients in their homes, bathing them, cooking for them, helping them dress and take their medications. But now, suffering from kidney failure, she is too ill to work.

Her mind and memory are not what they once were, she acknowledges, and as a result she is hazy about the important events that will take place on April 16. On that day, the Supreme Court of the United States is scheduled to hear oral arguments in a case in which Ms. Coke, a 73-year-old immigrant from Jamaica, is the sole plaintiff.

LANSING — Gov. Jennifer Granholm learned this past year that her skin is a lot thicker than she thought when it comes to handling the slings and arrows of politics.

She’s going to need rhinoceros hide as she heads into a second term in January.

With a weak economy and sluggish revenues again bedeviling the state, the Democratic governor already knows she will have to cut spending and come up with more revenue in the year ahead.

That challenge could actually be an opportunity for the 47-year-old Granholm to get the state on sound financial footing for the first time in years, a move that likely would require changing the state’s tax structure and possibly increasing taxes.

$1B state shortfall could hurt schools and cities

Charlie Cain and Gary Heinlein / Detroit News Lansing Bureau

LANSING -- Michigan could face more than a $1 billion budget deficit combined over the next two years, triggering additional cutbacks that could again slam public schools, cities and universities.

Gov. Jennifer Granholm said Thursday that when that figure is added to the potential loss of an additional $2 billion caused by the elimination of the Single Business Tax, "We are looking potentially at a $3 billion hole. That's a huge number. The state is facing probably the most significant budget deficit that we have ever faced."