Don't go to Michigan this week.

          The State is CLOSED

Michigan's state government partly shuts down

Lawmakers scramble to reach tax increase deal; essential services in place

The Associated Press, Updated: 1:02 a.m. CT Oct 1, 2007

LANSING, Mich. - Michigan's state government partially shut down early Monday as the new fiscal year began with no budget deal in place to plug a $1.75 billion deficit.

The Senate voted to raise the state's income tax from 3.9 percent to 4.35 percent, a key step toward implementing a budget deal, hours after the measure passed the House. It now heads to Democratic Gov. Jennifer Granholm, who is expected to sign it.

Granholm was waiting for the income tax increase and a bill placing the state's 6 percent sales tax on a wide range of services before she would sign a 30-day continuation budget that would keep government running.

While the House earlier passed the bill expanding the sales tax, the Senate had not voted on the measure.

The House and Senate also approve a measure that would change the way some teacher and state worker health benefits are determined.

In one of the first signs a shutdown was looming, campers were asked to leave some Michigan state parks Sunday night. Some highway rest areas closed and some state troopers did not start their overnight shifts.

Services that protect public health and safety, including prisons and state police, kept running.

Without a budget deal in place, 35,000 of the state's roughly 53,000 workers were expected to be barred from going to work Monday morning.

© 2007 The Associated Press

John