Double Poverty

Michigan's Governor G. Mennen Williams last week called a joint session of the legislature and read the riot act. "This is truly a disgraceful condition to which a great state has been reduced," cried he. "It cannot but shake the confidence of the people in the procedures of representative government."

Faced with a lack of cash, hoarding what it has for welfare payments and schools, Michigan had missed a state payroll for the second week in a row. Altogether last week 26,000 employees, including stenographers, state troopers, doctors and "Soapy" Williams himself ($866), went without paychecks. In Lansing the State Employees Credit Union doled out interest-free loans. In Detroit the New York Bar & Grill reassured lunchtime customers from nearby state buildings: CHARGE YOUR MEALS UNTIL THE LEGISLATURE PROVIDES PAYDAYS.

Behind the crisis was an impending $120 million deficit and a controversy over the proper new tax to erase it (TIME, May 4). Governor Williams wants to tap a $50 million veterans' fund for immediate cash, replenish the till and wipe out the deficit with corporate and personal income taxes. Old Guard Republicans, who control the state senate, are agreeable to using the trust fund. But they want to increase Michigan's 3% sales tax to 4% and avoid an income tax, refuse to release the veterans' fund until Williams agrees. Still adamant. Soapy Williams offered a compromise. The compromise, it turned out, was his original offer restated, and it was turned down. As the deadlock continued and funds got scarcer, the Detroit News crystallized a common sentiment about the poverty of statesmanship: "Party leadership has shown it cannot lead, except into disaster. It's time for men of better will to get to work."

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