by Tom Shields
March 16, 2009

Is spring really just around the corner?

If you’ve lived in Michigan awhile, you know the few nice days we get in early March are just a tease. Setting our clocks ahead is the price we’re more than willing to pay, knowing longer days lie just ahead. March 23rd is just another day on the calendar.

The first real day of spring moves around, just like Easter. Everyone has his or her own barometer of when the season officially arrives. For some, it’s the weather, the birds chirping in the morning, or finally being able to recognize the neighbors as they walk by. For others, it’s the buds on the trees and the bushes, the flowers blooming, and other hints of life as the landscape changes from shades of grayish-brown to bright new shades of green.

For me, spring is officially here when I get our Christmas lights down! When I exchange the snow shovel for the one that digs in the garden, or open the windows in the house to get a blast of fresh, new spring air. Spring air smells so much better than any other.

For sports hounds like me, it’s also March Madness, hockey and basketball playoffs, and the granddaddy of them all — Opening Day of Major League Baseball in Detroit.

But the arrival of spring is much more than a date on the calendar, the signs that usher in this celebrated season, or the events that mark it.

It’s about change and a fresh new start. Spring is so powerful that it can get Democrats and Republicans thinking green or maize instead of red and blue during tournament time. It can get the Detroit City Council acting civil on Opening Day, and all of us believing we are Irish at least one day. It’s a new attitude, and a break after suffering the long winter.

And boy, can Michigan use a break.

While Old Man Winter has pounded us with storm after storm, it’s been mild compared with the beating our economy has taken. The combination of the recent economic storm and six years of neglect has left us with economic pot holes that can’t be paved over with stimulus checks.

Our recent voter survey tells the real story. While Michigan voters are starting to be slightly less pessimistic, two-thirds of them still believe the country is on the wrong track, and three-quarters believe the state is on the same wrong track.

On the stimulus package, only 51 percent of voters support it. A majority (56 percent) have no confidence the package will turn the country or state around. Of course, that probably has something to do with 55 percent of the voters having no confidence that the governor or the legislature will spend the money wisely.

And, even though we keep hearing that Obamabucks are going to 95 percent of taxpayers (whether they pay taxes or not), only 22 percent of Michigan voters believe that the stimulus effort will help them personally.

As much as Michigan needs a spring break, its voters won’t bite on the first tease, sign or symbol that it’s arrived.

Michiganders need a new outlook, new hope, and a fresh look at things that perhaps the magical powers of spring can bring. But so far they are unconvinced that trillions of dollars in new government (errr, taxpayer) spending is the answer. They are still waiting for the true sign that spring may really be here.

Tom Shields is founder and president of Marketing Resource Group, a Lansing-based political marketing and public relations firm.