Gov. Jennifer Granholm gave her State of the State speech last week and provides her budget this week. In this time she has paved a campaign trail for Lt. Gov. John Cherry Jr. on the premise of forming a commission to ignore the studies brought by economic and academic analysts to create smaller government (not to mention the book she declares she embraces, “The Price of Government”). She suggests elimination of 10 state departments and a 10 percent reduction in state wages … in a few years. She promises — and Michigan is prepared for — budget cuts. The governor said late last week those cuts would affect all areas of the state budget, including revenue sharing for cities. Her cuts in education funding are accompanied by some insistence that colleges and universities freeze tuition while the ax falls, even as budgets and contracts are being established. She challenged Michigan’s insurance industry suggesting that rates be frozen even while the state applies additional regulations that already have increased rates for residents.