By Phil Power

Take a minute to cast your mind forward to New Year's Day 2011. For that will be a key moment in Michigan history -- the day we start over with a leadership that is nearly all new.

That presents us with a challenge and opportunity unlike any other in recent history. We know that a new governor and lieutenant governor have to be sworn in at noon that day in Lansing. Gov. Jennifer Granholm and Lt. Governor John Cherry are term-limited and cannot run for those offices in the November 2010 election.

Mike Cox and Terri Lynn Land also will be term-limited out of office, so we'll have a new attorney general and secretary of state.

The day the voters choose their replacements, the entire 110-member House of Representatives will also be up for election. The revolving door will be operating there, too: A sizable number of state representatives are sure to be term-limited out. Others will be defeated or will voluntarily step down, so that a majority of the House will be new.

And the Senate will resemble a freshman dorm. At least 31 out of 38 presently sitting state senators will be term-limited out of office.

Others will undoubtedly leave voluntarily or be defeated.

That means a large majority of the 152 elected state officeholders sworn in on Jan. 1, 2011, will be men and women who are rookies, just starting their jobs.

That's why they are starting to call Nov. 2, 2010, a "watershed election."

Although we will be starting with a fresh cast of characters, the problems we face today -- problems that add up to the greatest economic and political crisis since the Great Depression -- will not have gone away.

That's why Michigan's present state of flux represents truly a "defining moment" -- a time to call forth a new generation of citizenship and civic leadership to help make a new Michigan.

As a resullt, a statewide effort called Michigan's Defining Moment Public Engagement Campaign is being launched this fall. The goal: to bring leaders and citizens together to grapple with some of the problems our political system hasn't been able to solve.

The economic challenge is formidable. Dominated by the automobile industry, Michigan is experiencing terrible stress as the industry struggles to remake itself in a globalizing economy. The long-term effort to restructure the industry and its labor relations will certainly not have been completed by Inauguration Day 2011.

Partly as a result of the auto woes, the state General Fund budget has experienced a chronic annual structural deficit of more than $1 billion for years. It's a good bet the existing Legislature and present governor will not have fully succeeded in getting our financial house in order by 2011. They have failed to do so year after year.

For six straight years, Michigan has foolishly disinvested in its long-term, competitive assets -- our colleges and universities, the Great Lakes and our environment and the quality of life they bring.

That has made it far harder to nurture, attract and retain talented people. Even if our lawmakers finally launch a sustained public investment program to undo the damage done over the past decade, it will be far from complete by January 2011.

On another front, the structure, workings and costs of government at nearly all levels is complicated, mostly unexamined, in some cases excessively expensive and ripe for reform. This includes not only the state government, but thousands of units of local government, and the schools. At most, this process will have only barely gotten under way by the time the new governor moves in.

So we face a series of massive problems -- and each of them calls for in-depth public input leading to broad consensus about what to do to guide our state toward prosperity. That's the purpose of the Michigan's Defining Moment Campaign.

On an optimistic note: Leaders in Michigan are taking up the challenge. More than 100 gathered in two separate meetings in May to discuss these problems. They agreed on three reform principles designed to transform Michigan to a new era of prosperity.

They are:

• Greatly enhance the skills and potential of our people so they can compete with workers around the globe -- and win. That means we must grow, retain and attract talent.

• Invest in those competitive assets that differentiate Michigan from other places in order to best attract and retain those who provide jobs and other talented people.

• Make our public sector nimble, thrifty and accountable.

And now it's your turn -- your chance to weigh in and refine these ideas for statewide transformation. The Defining Moment Campaign will launch more than 80 statewide Community Conversations in October and November. Through those meetings, more than 1,000 additional leaders and engaged citizens will discuss and refine these reform principles. Then, we will tackle the job of prioritizing the tradeoffs in taxes and public services that may be necessary to achieve significant change.

This is not something new, or unique to Michigan. In northwest Ohio, more than 20,000 citizens have worked together to come up with priorities and solutions for transforming that struggling region.

In New Jersey, citizen panels are working to rewrite the state's outdated tax system.

In New Orleans, officials are hearing from the diaspora of residents displaced by the hurricanes of 2005. They may be elsewhere, but they are weighing in on the rebuilding plans through large-scale, teleconferenced town hall meetings.

Involving citizens in discussing and refining these reform principles and in making the tough trade-offs required to achieve them is the highest challenge of our times.

Truly, what we are about to do will be Michigan's Defining Moment. And through the campaign, you, too, can have a voice in the future of your state. I'll further detail the reform ideas for Michigan and the Community Conversations in additional columns over the next several weeks. Meanwhile, to learn more or reserve a seat for a conversation near you, go to www.thecenterformichigan.net