In the City of Jackson, the discussion at city hall involves cutting police and fire by as many as 35 positions while the city runs two public pools that are swimming in red ink.

Jackson is among many cities in the state that operates recreational opportunities - at a loss - while other core services are put on the chopping block.

According to the city's budget, Jackson lost about $132,000 in 2008-09 by operating its two pools. The city also lost another $7,500 on its golf center. Jackson owns one 18-hole golf course, but its expenses are grouped in with the maintenance of the 530-acre Ella Sharp Park, said Brandon Ransom, the city's parks, recreation and grounds director.

Ransom said the city was trying to balance cultural and quality of life opportunities with core services like police and fire.

"If all you have is police and firemen riding around ... without cultural opportunities that add to the quality of life, then you have a void in the community," Ransom said.

Ransom said the city did raise $39,000 in private donations to help pay for the pools' expenses.

But James Hohman, policy analyst for the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, said local government should get out of the entertainment business.

"They are responsible for protecting residents, not for ensuring that they have golf facilities," Hohman said. "They are subsidizing these leisure activities while looking for savings in their core services."

According to the Jackson Citizen Patriot, the Jackson police union has suggested privatizing some of the city-owned pools as part of a plan to save $1 million and avoid police layoffs.

"We're getting to the point where the city decides if it wants niceties and fun stuff or police and firefighters," Shane LaPorte, union president for the Police Officers Labor Council, told the Jackson Citizen Patriot. The Jackson newspaper reported that city manager Warren Renando proposed a plan that would merge the police and fire departments and also cut the police force by 25 positions and the fire department by 10 positions.

When Social Security payments for retirees started in 1935, payments began at age 65. However, back in 1935 the life expectancy was an average of 61.7 years for men and women.

The U.S. Deficit Commission recommended raising the age to receive full benefits  to age 68 by 2050 and age 69 by 2075 as a way to cut the deficit. 

Currently the full retirement age is 67 for those born in 1960 and later.

Ray Holman, legislative liaison at Michigan's UAW Local 6000, acknowledged that people are living longer, but was against raising the age to receive full benefits.

"People who do rely on those benefits are the working poor and the middle class," Holman said.

He said a better to reduce the deficit was to tax people in higher income brackets.

Michael LaFaive, director of the Morey Fiscal Policy Initiative at the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, said raising the full-benefits retirement age was the "least the federal government should do."

"It's for retirees in the future whose life expectancy could be even longer than it is today," LaFaive said. "Hiking it to 70 for today's 18 year olds is not unreasonable."