Thanksgiving Postscript

by Tim Skubick
November 27, 2009

There’s a good reason why political columnists rarely offer up anything remotely connected to Thanksgiving: there is so little for which to give thanks.

Should everyone be rejoicing at the professional manner in which lawmakers and the governor resolved this year’s budget?

Or better yet, should we be thankful that they took two weeks off for hunting season and Turkey Day because, as the old saying goes, if they aren’t in town they can’t do anything to harm you?

You get the point.

However, now that you are feasting on leftovers from the TG feast, let’s see if it’s possible to write a thanksgiving postscript.

Thank you to Sarah Palin. She has provided a nice distraction from the gargantuan health care debate, two wars, and the sorry state of the economy around here.

1,500 souls showed up to buy her book in Grand Rapids, and by media accounts the turnout was enough to launch her bid for the White House in four years.

A little perspective please: Michigan has nine million people who did not go roguing, and that mere handful of Palintologists does not a movement make…media accounts notwithstanding.

Thanks to the Gang of 44 in the Michigan House. After spending almost 10 months in hibernation, this freshman class has shown signs of life as it tackles a rewrite of how we fund our schools and pushes a long overdue effort to revamp the state’s gawdawful term limits law. To be sure, they have not produced any results, but their heart is in the right place even if the votes, so far, are not.

Thanks to House Speaker Andy Dillon. Not for his proposed rewrite of the state’s health care system, but for providing the long-running “Will-He-Or-Won’t-He-Run-For-Governor saga.” He and his minions have managed to keep the thing alive for months, but the end is in sight, for which we can also be thankful.

Thanks to Governor Jennifer Granholm for scrubbing the holiday parties at the executive residence this year. The time-honored tradition dates back to former Gov. William Milliken, who was so enthralled by having the Capitol Press Corps over to the house that he had his staff flick the lights on and off precisely at 7 p.m. when the bash was scheduled to end. This governor, of course, would never be so tacky, but she could use the rest as she prepares to enter her final year in office.

Thanks to former Gov. John Engler, who is secretly plotting to influence the outcome of the next race for governor. What’s a political dogfight without the ultimate in political dogfighters sticking his nose into the fray while reports circulate that he and his wife are looking for a new home back here.

Thanks to the Senate Republicans for teaching our children that the word compromise is a four-letter word and that it is better to avoid seeking the middle ground on anything if it damages the GOP chances of winning the next election. Kids, don’t do as they say…compromise in the legislative process is not a dirty word.

And finally, thanks to those political bloggers who add to the discourse and manage to do it with total disregard for any journalistic standards, including pursuit of that little thing we call the truth. You make the rest of the media look pretty good…which in and of itself is quite an accomplishment and something to be thankful for.

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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Biting Off a Lot
Talk about a mouthful.

For months, this lawmaker and that have chatted about revamping the state’s tax system. Rep. Alma Wheeler Smith is tired of all the talking and took matters into her own hands this week.

She wants a graduated income tax.

She wants to close $3 billion in tax loopholes.

She wants a sales tax on services and a new state sales tax rate of 5.5 percent instead of 6 percent.

And when she has nothing else to do she wants to wipe out the 22-percent business tax surcharge.

In other words, she wants the moon, the sun and the stars and, unfortunately for the Democratic candidate for governor, she is not likely to get any of it by her self-imposed deadline of January 31.

But give her credit for trying and having the guts to announce that state government needs more revenue…about $6.5 billion more.

Her biggest hurdle, of course, is rounding up the votes from House and Senate members to pass all this stuff, not to mention convincing you to support the graduated income tax if it makes it to the November ballot next year.

Her second biggest hurdle is fighting off the opposition, which will be strong, loud and well financed.

“This is not going to be an easy sell, but it’s a sell that has to happen,” Smith argues.

“It looks like its dead on arrival from my standpoint,” counterpunches Chuck Hadden, who runs the Michigan Manufacturers Association that includes the major automakers.

Smith’s assignment is to “educate” citizens on why all this money is needed. She can’t do it in a 10-second sound bite, but the opposition can. It will say Lansing wants to take $6.5 billion in new money out of your pocketbook. End of story.

You can see who has the easier job trying to “educate” the citizenry.

But Smith is not conceding defeat. There’s plenty of time for that later on.

Did She Really Say That?
There is one common trait among avid hunters. They are so passionate about the sport that occasionally they lose touch with reality. Just ask Rebecca Humphries, who for the last five years has been the governor’s Department of Natural Resources director.

Nobody knew she had this problem until the news guys at the MIRS newsletter interviewed her the other day.

Ever since lawmakers decided to take two weeks off for hunting season and Thanksgiving, they’ve taken some well-deserved heat for not showing up in town. Think school funding crisis, economic mess, and college kids screaming for their $4,000 state scholarship…all of these placed on hold for this two-week traditional break.

The governor has been relatively mild in her public rebuke saying, “Lawmakers should come back” and work on these issues. Dollars to donuts that in private she is seething.

Sen. Gretchen Whitmer (D-East Lansing) has been more blunt. “I am appalled and disgusted” by this time off.

Enter one Ms. Humphries, who proves beyond the shadow of a doubt that she’s from another planet.

Asked in the interview about lawmakers taking time off to hunt, Humphries opined, “It is part of our heritage…I hope we never see a day when the legislature decides deer hunting isn’t important enough and so they just stay in Lansing and continue their business.”

Ah. Hello. Earth to Humphries.

Deer hunting trumps doing the citizens’ business?

This is not a close call. Lawmakers who hunt could do it on the weekend. OK, maybe let them go on opening day if it falls during the workweek, but after that it’s back in the saddle.

The DNR director has, on balance, done a respectable job. So maybe she (1) had an off day; (2) was misquoted; or, perish the thought, (3) really believes that stuff about hunting being more important than lawmakers working for the people first.

Let’s go with number three.