Statement from House Democratic Leader Richard E. Hammel (Mt. Morris Township) on news that Michigan’s unemployment rate rose to 10.9 percent in July:

“The Governor and legislative Republicans spent much of the first sixth months slashing social safety nets, cutting our children’s education funding and shifting the tax burden onto seniors and working families to facilitate an 83 percent corporate tax cut whose generous benefits are clearly not paying dividends to our working families. What’s worse is that while our unemployment rate is rising, Republicans voted to slash unemployment benefits to our families by six weeks, the first state in the nation to do so.

“The Governor and Republican leadership in our state need to start standing up for the people instead of making it harder for them to pay their bills and put food on their plates. It is time for all of us to get back to work on making Michigan an attractive place to live, do business and raise a family and that begins with putting Michiganders back on the job.”