“The governor isn’t going to make it easy on us. He has proposed a cowardly budget. He said he doesn’t want to break unions so he’s going to make us break them. That’s a horrible way to run a state.” - Ypsilanti City Council Member Brian Robb, on an estimated $4.5 million budget shortfall the city faces by 2016.

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"He's screwing the schools. Old guys like me, too, on retirement. I'm willing to pay my taxes, but I think the damn business tax ought to be a little higher. All you Republicans think all that stuff trickles down. I don't believe that." - Philip Kearney, a retired faculty member from the University of Michigan's School of Education, speaking to state Rep. Rick Olson, on Gov. Rick Snyder's state budget proposal.

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"He's certainly making an attempt to try to reset the state, but you gore a lot of oxen in the process. There's no guarantee that it'll work. That's for sure." - Republican state Rep. Rick Olson, replying to Pittsfield Township resident Philip Kearney.

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"You just can't teach kindergarten and get real involved in cannabis politics. But since 2004, I've been working as hard as I can to make up for every moment that I lost." - former kindergarten teacher Chuck Ream of Ann Arbor, talking about Ann Arbor’s Hash Bash and his own role in advocating legalization of marijuana.