by Tim Skubick
October 2, 2009

In politics, perception is reality. That’s because citizens are susceptible to being sucked in by one picture or one phase that often distorts reality — and the politicians exploit it nonetheless because it advances their own agendas.

Item: Republicans head to Mackinac Island for a party confab while the state budget remains up in the air.

And there was state Democratic Party Chair Mark Brewer leading the charge to use the situation. He waxed on about how Republicans would be on the island “drinking and partying” while, in effect, Rome/Lansing burned.

Senate Democrats picked up the theme during floor debate last Friday on the eve of the previously scheduled GOP event.

“It’s irresponsible,” bemoaned Democratic leader Mike Prusi.

Try as they did to refute the charge, the GOP senators knew they were losing the perception battle. They knew the public, already upset that lawmakers frittered away the summer and left the budget to be resolved at the 11th hour again, would be even more angry at the sight of an empty Senate chamber and packed bars with GOP merrymakers on the island.

In a desperate attempt to take the edge off that perception, the Rs engaged in a little distortion of their own. As the TV cameras were poised to record the Republican senators dashing out the door, they went into a closed-door caucus instead.

When they emerged, they announced the Senate would come back at 3 p.m. on Friday. Dollars to donuts the GOP senators knew they would not come back, and some left for the island while the Democrats urged reporters to dash out to the airport and catch all of them getting on corporate jets.

If that happened, nobody got the pictures.

The House was going to meet on Saturday, but Speaker Andy Dillon concluded that if the Senate was not going to be in town, why should his guys stick around? So they left Friday night, and the governor got into the act by noting that both houses had left town with an unfinished budget still unfinished. It was a characteristically mild rebuke, but still a rebuke that polished her image as a hard worker while smudging lawmakers for getting out of Dodge.

And speaking of the governor, she’s no slouch either when it comes to the perception game. While Dillon and Bishop have consumed all the coverage on trying to resolve the budget, the governor has been relegated to a backroom role, where she has been actively engaged but not very visible, leading some to declare her missing in action.

Well, it finally dawned on the front office that the perception thing was creating an ugly image, so out of nowhere the other day the governor showed up on the House floor for all the reporters and TV cameras to see. Never mind that the cameo had zilch impact on the process — that wasn’t the objective. The gov’s handlers wanted the public to see that she was in the game.

But here’s one image none of these good folks can spin. For the second time in two years, this governor, these legislative leaders and those lawmakers have again waited until the last minute to do what they should have done three months ago, i.e. write a new budget.

And as difficult as the task may be, here’s the perception that is reality: they didn’t have the leadership gravitas to get it done earlier.

Tim Skubick is Michigan’s senior Capitol correspondent and has anchored the weekly public TV series “Off the Record” since 1972. He also covers the Capitol and politics for WLNS-TV6 in Lansing.

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Two for Three
It could have been worse, a lot worse. Yes, the inept Michigan Legislature made it two for three in missing deadlines, but in the grand scheme of things, it made no difference.

Two years ago they shut the government down for four hours and this time it was just under two hours. No harm, no foul.

Nonetheless, Speaker of the House Andy Dillon said, “I’m sorry we couldn’t get it done on time.” In his defense, there were a lot of moving parts.

But as noted in this space recently, it’s not that they didn’t have a lot of time to move them into place. After all, the governor sent them her budget when the snow was flying last February.

Well, having sat through this most recent budget ballet, the mighty freshman caucus in the House, all 44 of them, finally got up the nerve to call for some reform.

Actually, they swiped it from Gov. Granholm and Mike Bouchard, who swiped it from her. It’s a plan to reduce the pay of lawmakers for each day they don’t have a budget in place after July first.

It’s one of those no-brainer concepts that leaves you wondering, “Why haven’t they been doing that all along?” Good question.

The answer is: the guys who would be hurt are the same guys who have to approve it. Nuff said.

So give the freshies their due. They spoke with one voice. But they could have had a bigger impact if they had gotten up last July, in the middle of an elongated summer recess, and called out their elders for fiddling while the budget remained unresolved.

Maybe next year when they go three for four.

Coulda Shoulda Woulda …
As impossible as it may seem, there could have been a budget resolution last July.

That’s when Gov. Jennifer Granholm actually agreed to cut state spending by $1.1 billion, but the Senate GOP leader rejected the offer, claiming it was not enough.

Note that that offer was just $100 million lower than the number finally negotiated by Speaker Andy Dillon and Sen. Mike Bishop.

The governor will not confirm any of this, but here’s how the story unfolded.

It was a beautiful, sunny day on July 23 when the governor strolled through the farmer’s market set up on the front law of the state Capitol. She had just come out of a budget negotiating session with Mr. Bishop where the $1.1 billion in cuts were placed on the table by her for the first time.

A Lansing source reveals, “This solution that they have right now [was offered] two months ago.” The “cuts were close to $1.1 billion [and Bishop] said it needed to be more.”

This source explains the governor’s strategy. It is not that she wanted to cut the budget by that much, but she was willing to do it if Mr. Bishop coughed up more revenue for programs she wanted to salvage.

She wanted to “send everyone out and let them try to reach those goals.” She correctly and instinctively knew they would discover, as they are now discovering, that they couldn’t do it.

At that point in July, she felt everyone could return to the table and “talk about where the problems are” and a new budget could be crafted with fewer cuts. Which, coincidently, is what they were trying to do at the deadline.

It’s the budget deal that almost was.

GOP Debate for Gov
It was billed as the first GOP debate for governor, but it was actually the second (but then, who’s keeping score?). Nonetheless, five would-be governors consumed about 75 minutes of WJR radio time last weekend, and here are some first-blush impressions.

No clear winner. No major goofs. No memorable moment that goes into the history books, ala “I knew John Kennedy and you are no John Kennedy.”

First-timer Rick Snyder did a commendable job in getting his message out that he’s a business guy and not a professional politician. But he remains untested because of the format; we have no feel for how he will stand up under some tough questioning from reporters and opponents when the gloves come off, which we know they will.

Oakland County Sheriff Mike Bouchard, unlike Snyder, actually has hands-on experience in the legislature, noting: “I know how it works.” He dodged one bullet. He whacked the state’s strategy of doling out tax breaks to attract businesses, as he wants the “market place to decide” where the jobs go.

Does that mean he opposes the tax breaks that will reopen the Ford Wixom plant in his own backyard? Nobody asked.

Attorney General Mike Cox did better this time than the last debate on the island. He was not nearly as hyper and aggressive, and he hit hard on his plan to revamp Michigan (while winning the battle to give out his web address the most times). Bouchard, however, clipped the A.G., who said he supported higher education but also wanted a $2-billion tax cut.

The sheriff noted, “You can’t cut two billon and fund education.”

Congressman Pete Hoekstra was not as strong this time as he was at the Detroit Regional Chamber debate last May. He did break a story, which no one followed up on in the debate. He wants to create a tax system with only one tax, the sales tax. It’s a provocative idea. He took some nice shots at the sitting governor, but he’s not running against her.

State Senator and doctor Tom George sounded like he was running for surgeon general. It seemed like every answer, even to non-health related questions, came back to his mantra to reform the health care system. He did stand out from the pack by embracing tax credits to lure jobs, and saying tax cuts and smaller government alone would not fix Michigan.

And there was something that is almost unheard of at GOP gatherings. He mentioned Flint and Detroit.

Best line of the event went to Cox. As time was running out, moderator and class clown L. Brooks Patterson rang a bell to shut off Cox. Cox winged this response: “Brooks, you have a bell. Mike (Sheriff Bouchard) has a gun. But I have a plan for Michigan.”