By Phil Power - September 21, 2007
Michigan's public policy and finance system is broken.
That's the only lesson that can be drawn from the year-long (!) deadlock in Lansing over the state’s budget. The interests of nearly 10 million Michigan citizens have been held hostage to the partisan agendas of both political parties and their member office-holders.
Otherwise, we'd be talking seriously about how to get Michigan through our current economic crisis and begin laying the foundation for our future prosperity. We'd have a vision for our state and a well-developed agenda and budget for reaching it.
Instead, we have had partisan bickering and finger-pointing while the October 1 constitutional deadline for a balanced state budget keeps getting closer and closer.
If Michigan had a budget, we could focus attention on the real issue at hand: How to remake and re-brand Michigan as a vibrant and entrepreneurial "North Coast" – a place that is home to one-fifth of the world’s fresh surface water and a fistful of other natural resources that support sustainable growth in industries such as agriculture, tourism and forestry. And a place that grows ever smarter, more innovating and world competitive.
How would we go about it? It’s actually pretty simple.
We would establish a new "public purse," long term sustained taxing and spending strategy focused like a laser on that vision for Michigan and how to reach it. Top spending priorities would be education, economic development, marketing our state to the world and investments in our state's quality of life: arts and culture, natural resources, health, safety.
But we need a budget and a shared vision.
We would continue to thrive as a manufacturing powerhouse, but this time around re-engineered for high technology, high productivity, high skills. The engine manufacturing plant near Dundee is the model: Only two job classifications, outsourced janitorial and other commodity tasks, four 10-hour shifts, and every worker with no less than an associates degree from a community college. The result: High profitability and growing market share.
To get this, we need cooperation between labor and management. And we need a statewide vision to encourage this kind of collaboration. We don’t have that.
We would support our universities both as magnets for the best and brightest to come to (or stay in) Michigan. We’d sustain the research now being done in university labs, and we’d support commercialization of this research.
But without a vision and a budget, this won't happen.
We would grow an entrepreneurial culture through our universities and our schools. We would begin to undo the historic fantasy that all kids have to do is get a high school diploma and catch on an auto manufacturer in order to live well and support a family.
We’d encourage venture capital to find a profitable home in Michigan. We'd provide recognition and support for our new economy of entrepreneurs and small businesses. We’d have a simple, predictable, competitive tax structure that recognizes that firms thrive through high-skill, high-productivity business model.
But we don't have a budget that sustains all this. And we don't have a vision that motivates such a budget.
These ideas are hardly rocket science. They’re common sense. And they establish common ground for all kinds of people, whether Republicans or Democrats or Independents.
They'll be the subject of community conversations that are part of the Michigan’s Defining Moment campaign that starts next month. To learn more or reserve a seat, go to www.thecenterformichigan.net.
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Phil Power is a longtime observer of politics, economics and education
issues in Michigan. He would be pleased to hear from readers at
ppower@hcnnet.com. Phil Power is president of the Center for Michigan. However, these opinions and others expressed in Phil Power’s columns are individual opinions and do not in any way represent official policy positions of the Center for Michigan.
4 Comments
My only comment is that the political system in this state and nation are, or should be, terminal. Neither party is working for the common good. They work for the big contributors, lobbyists, and their political party. All they care about is positioning themselves for the next election. All this adds up to representing only themselves. We desperately need a viable third party to work for us (the people).
Nationwide, all public employee pay, benefit and retirement plans need updating to reflect today's marketplace. No one likes losing ground, but too many are paying the price of stubborness. Job loss is much worse than losing only some of what you would expect to have in the future. The domestic auto industry makes this evident. As thousands have lost their good paying jobs, many of those still fortunate enough to be working want no less than the status quo. Worse, the executives want more!
Michigan lawmakers have succumbed to "partisanitis." Symptons include clouded vision. Night sweats are more about voting with their party than concern for the future of Michigan.
In my view, the remedy for this malady is "half-year sessions" commencing each January--ending in June. Granted the shortened session would not end the political bickering, but budget bills would be completed in a timely manner.
If it's a full-time job lawmakers need, let them work the last half of the year meeting with their constituents and community leaders to shape the vision for next year's six-month legislative session.
At least half of the year could be spent acting more like Michigan's innovators, finding solutions to problems, not creating them.
Michigan must revise it's income tax on pensions. Today, retirees with very high incomes pay zero State Income Tax. This is unique in Michigan, as it has the highest exclusions of any State.
With a larger number of retirees to workers in Michigan, the imbalance puts added load on working class wage earners. It is unfair.
John
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