Wow. Not since Geoffey Fieger in 1998 have Democrats’ prospects at the top of the Michigan ticket endured such jolting news as John Cherry’s withdrawal this week from the gubernatorial race.
As Cherry fell, Republican pizza baron Dave Brandon also finally squashed the never-ending, but never-quite-buzzing rumors of his impending candidacy.
So, where does that leave Michigan voters?
On the Dem side, who could pick a clear favorite among Alma Wheeler-Smith, Andy Dillon, George Perles, John Freeman, Virg Bernero, or Dan Kildee?
On the Republican side, are Pete Hoekstra, Mike Cox and Mike Bouchard happy to not have another big name in Brandon to contend with? And is Rick Snyder wondering if he should’ve run as a Dem?
So, where does that leave Michigan voters? Well, what if it leaves them exactly where they were before Cherry and Brandon disappeared from the possible candidates list?
What if what really matters is issues, rather than personas.
A number of the candidates have their online media machines already running. The ink is starting to dry on the first drafts of their position papers? What do they stand for? What are they going to do?
The faces may change in coming months, but Michigan’s big-picture gubernatorial issues are already out there.
The fine print — the details that matter most to common citizens, leading economists, and other wonks alike — is pretty doggone clear. Three examples…
1. THE MICHIGAN’S DEFINING MOMENT COMMON GROUND CITIZENS AGENDA — Nearly 10,000 statewide citizens have participated in the Center for Michigan’s community conversations. The final report of their deliberations will be published in the spring, but their big-picture priorities are straightforward: economic development and diversification, an education system that churns out talented and globally competitive workers (who work in Michigan), public investment in quality of place, and an efficient and accountable public sector.
2. LEGISLATIVE COMMISSION ON GOVERNMENT EFFICIENCY — For two years this volunteer panel of private and public sector scoured state government and came up with hundreds of millions of dollars in money-saving approaches.
3. MICHIGAN’S NEXT GOVERNOR PROJECT — A team of Lansing insiders with decades of experience is playing a blunt game of twenty questions with every candidate. Gubernatorial candidates stumped by these questions probably are not qualified to lead this state through these difficult times.
Keep those three examples handy. They are measuring sticks for the ISSUE debates to come, no matter who the PERSONALITIES are in the gubernatorial race.
5 Comments
John,
One of the Republican candidates has already released 2 well written position papers on 1.Michigan Business tax alternative and last month on 2.how to balance the budget by doing an evaluation of various spending catagories, he calls it “Value analysis”. His name is Rick Synder and he is doing exactly what you and other have suggested, solutions for the major issues. He is not pushing the “personality issue” as others are and the media will continue to report on because most of those in the media are unqualified to write about issues and solutions (such as wondering if he should have run as a Democrat). Practice what you preach, write about the issues and what each candidate is proposing.
Ron Modreski
On reforming business taxes, Rick Snyder wants to eliminate the MBT, replacing it with a 6 % flat tax. Business Leaders for Michigan wants to eliminate the Business Personal Property Tax.
I do not yet see a comprehensive and effective plan to reform and eliminate some business taxes. Michigan some day has to compete with Ohio. Ohio has a corporate activities tax of 0.26%. The Ohio business personal property tax is eliminated. The Ohio sales tax on business purchases is eliminated for manufacturing.
How is Michigan going to reform to compete with this? For favorite business, targeted business, there are tax abatements and Renaissance Zones. But this is wrong. Tax reform needs to be available for all Michigan business. It seems that the policy for the last 7 years has been to eliminate all non-targeted business. All non-targeted business, that being patriotic and paying its Michigan taxes, cannot compete in the national or global economy, just needs to go bankrupt or move out of Michigan.
The Detroit 3 auto should not close any plants in Ohio, but should expand there, convert and/or retool plants.
If I may, let me re-iterate three of the four issues from THE MICHIGAN’S DEFINING MOMENT COMMON GROUND CITIZENS AGENDA identifed and summarized above:
- Economic development and diversification,
- A quality education system
- Public investment in quality of place
While I agree that a favorable tax climate is important to the health of current Michigan business, and the ability to attract and encourage the growth of new business, the conversation has to move beyond this discussion which all too often pivots on an ideological axis.
While contribution to the economic growth of the community is a benefit of healthy businesses, promoting economic development and diversification is not the responsibility of the private sector, whose task is simply(?!) to succeed in operating a profitable business, one that is challenging enough in itself.
Similarly, the private sector has no responsibility to promote the education of our population, or to protect and improve our water supplies, rationalize land use, rebuild infrastructure or any of the other factors that influence “quality of place”.
All of these critical activities require the intervention of a (hopefully) efficient and accountable public sector, which in turn requires the economic resources to do all of the things that are required to rebuild our state – offer an improved business climate, provide support for business innovation, education of our children and adults (young and old), and ensure that the environment and infrastucture support life and work in Michigan.
Instead of taking steps to improve the efficiency and accountability AND TRUST of the public sector – the only sector that has as it’s core mission the betterment of life in Michigan – efforts continue to try to further reduce the power and effectiveness of our State and local governments, simply starving them of the revenue they need to do any job at all, and hoping that they die and leave us alone.
That the efficiency and accountability of the public sector can be improved is inarguably true. However, I believe that it is equally inarguably true that without a strong public sector, there will be no one to implement any of the agendas being proposed by the business leadership of our state. We need to improve the revenue side of the public sector equation along with making those needed improvements in efficiency and accountability. Cutting budgets alone does NOT represent efficiency, any more than buying the cheapest product represents value.
It’s time state government took real action. We can’t wait for the next election and the new officials to take office — that’s almost a year from now!
The current officials should start moving on the Michigan Turnaround Plan. There’s no excuse for inaction. We need to right-size state government and make our state attractive to business again.
http://www.michiganturnaroundplan.com
The Michigan Turnaround Plans requires three things—school choice, a greatly reduced government, and a very drastic cut in taxes. Parents and students should have options in education not one size fits all. This is a free state and the citizens are free men and women. They are not slaves to the state as the Republicans and Democrats agendas consider them.
$40 billion a year in state spending is ridiculous. The taxpayer can’t afford it and is tired of carrying it. All that is needed is a candidate to rally around who is libertarian in his/her politics regardless of what label he/she runs under. We need a candidate who is not beholden to the Democratic or Republican party agendas of “big is better” for government. Lansing needs a slasher who is not afraid to kill agencies, close offices, and lay-off the bloated bureaucracy and get our state back to responsible, smallest is best, government rather than big spending two party politicians with an agenda.