Inaction Fuels Frustration
When he published his classic novel on the Middle Eastern conflict, “The Little Drummer Girl,” author John LeCarre was accused of being pro-Palestinian by Israelis and pro-Israeli by the Palestinians. How could one choose a side, LeCarre asked, when both sides are right?
So it was when business types and public service types came together this week in Lansing at a conference about the state, sponsored by the Center for Michigan, and the hundreds of people there heard the discussion on what the state needs to do to turn itself around, to right its ship, to grab the brass ring, to do whatever catch phrase one prefers.
The messages were competing but not completely in conflict.
Rob Fowler of the Small Business Association said the state needed to do economic gardening to help build new entrepreneurs.
Doug Pratt of the Michigan Education Association and Richard Studley of the Michigan Chamber of Commerce both questioned the wisdom of targeted tax breaks for businesses. Mr. Pratt also argued for a greater education investment, and Mr. Studley said the state needs to generate more taxpayers through more businesses and workers.
Doug Rothwell of Business Leaders for Michigan talked about reforming state government and readjusting spending priorities so that the state is a cheaper place to do business and has a much smarter population.
Sharon Parks of the Michigan League for Human Services talked about needing to revamp the state’s tax system so it can adequately finance the services it must provide.
Dan Gilmartin of the Michigan Municipal League said the state has to develop a vision of what it wants to be and then develop a tax system around that.
And Michigan State University economist Charles Ballard argued for expanding the sales tax and instituting a graduated income tax while eliminating the Michigan Business Tax.
The audience expressed itself, too, saying the state was headed in the wrong direction, that if only one tax could be raised or expanded it should be the sales tax, and if only one tax should be cut it should be business taxes.
And everyone is right. In so many ways all those actions need to be taken to turn the state around. A growing economy does provide more tax revenues, and the state does need more taxpayers. Some taxes those taxpayers pay may be less than they are now, some may be more, and some may be in areas not now taxed. To help get those additional taxpayers the state needs to become smarter, the answer is to get more students through technical training or college, put more into schools. And those smarter people have to help determine what the state should look like, how it should act, what services it needs to provide and what things it cannot do.
So if everyone is right, what’s the problem?
The problem is best expressed outside that conference by virtually everyone not in the legislature or the administration of Governor Jennifer Granholm. It is expressed in a growing frustration, enhanced by the legislature not meeting this week. Simply put: a growing worry that government officials cannot act.
It does not matter that the state is in crisis. It does not matter that there is a genuine fear that the state is headed toward economic and structural collapse. The growing sense among state government observers is that government is incapable of action. It is frozen and refuses to thaw, they argue. But even in a deep freeze, people can act.
But changing the state cannot be done while the state is still struggling to simply stabilize itself.
The past weeks have seen Ms. Granholm working repeatedly to try to convince the Senate to move on revenue proposals she endorses. The Senate’s majority Republicans say they have moved on; the budget for 2009-10 is set and now is the time to look at other changes. If there is no agreement on the essence of the problems, then reaching accordance to act becomes impossible.
The legislature and Ms. Granholm would argue that they are acting, and they are, in a divergent, uncoordinated fashion, each with its own compass that points in no common direction. Officials in Ms. Granholm’s administration say they know they could get Senate Republican votes for their revenue proposals, if only Senate Majority Leader Mike Bishop (R-Rochester) would loosen his grip. But Senate Republicans say there is no support for revenue increases, so no grip has to be loosened because none is being exerted. So in a pure physics argument, this is action, much like two galaxies act by rushing away from each other.
Yet, even considering that, there is a nagging sense that both sides are right. Revenues are needed, but there is no desire for raising revenues; the state needs to reform and cut, but not cut too deeply that it hurts the state.
So how now to pick sides — how to turn the sides in on themselves and develop a resolution so that the state has a stable enough base on which to begin acting on all the future needs and changes that everyone agrees are needed?
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1 response so far ↓
1 William Stolz // Nov 20, 2009 at 7:28 am
My, my, it truly does seem that no one has noticed that the foxes (e.g Republican Party) have been quietly eating all the hens at their leisure.
Strong, decisive action was needed many years ago to preserve this great state and it’s once proud state government. At one time, Michigan was the envy of every other state.
Are there any leaders, like Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who have the courage in this state to raising taxes on ALL persons and entities, installing a strong, graduated income tax (if only temporary to asuage the tax obsessed voter) redoing the “rainy day” fund from the measly one billion that it once was to 10-20 billion that it should be to meet times like these.
Sure, as an economist, I am quite well-read on the subject of having a strong, small business system. But tourism and agriculture do not a middle class make.
Is Michigan a state that the Republicans wish to see to become the next Mississippi. it surely seems they also would love and want to destroy the rich union legacy of this state. It was this legacy which created a true, egalitarian middle class after WWII. It also resulted in creating many of the health insurance benefits (both publicly and privately owned and/or funded)
However, this knowledge is something my normally very smart and astute 20 something son seems clueless about.
Smart boy that he is, he is a recent graduate of a a fairly prestigious engineering school and employed in the energy sector, making as much as his “old man” does now. He works for a large, large, utility corporation outside this state, and works in manner that is fairly easy, laid back yet dutiful and efficient.
However, he, despite the raised in an excellent Michigan public education system, has become a “Republican.”
I and my wife tried to instill in him a sense of duty to serve society and those who will live in this country and on this planet several generations from now, (core values of being a “retro Democrat” I say).
However, our “fearless” leaders of yore never, unlike say Texas, set up a culture or educational system that mandated that our children developed a strong and deep running knowledge of Michigan history (and I’m not talking about the “yada, yada” indoctrination our kids received by ignorant educators regarding the “logging era” (e.g. read typical 3rd world forest to agricultural land conversion process) that occurred in the 19th century.
I doubt few, if any, graduate from our public schools with a firm knowledge of the blood spilled by men of all colors to unionize the automobile industry and the use of thugs (normally employed by Detroit’s organized crime elements) by GM, Ford and others to intimidate, maim, assault and kill the true peaceful warriors of Michigan’s, and then the entire United States of America, massive, and incredibly fruitful unionizing movement.
And let’s not forget, does anyone remember that Detroit was once commonly referred to as the arsenal of DEMOCRACY.
While I digress, it was recently formed United Auto Workers union and the willing and incredibly rapid conversion of Michigan’s and Detroit’s automobile industry to making B-17 bombers, Sherman tanks, etc, to overcome the true “Axis of Evil,” is what made so many of these poor, poor Republicans, very, very well off.
Granholm and her advisors have done a poor job at doing what President Clinton did best (and who did stop the right wing from destroying the “working middle class” in his time). President Clinton adeptly made it clear to American voters that “shutting” down” government, as the Republican controlled Congress desired, would only destroy the economic and overall quality of life and well-being the made these United States of American the envy of all the world…then.
Ah, but our dear Governor failed to seize many political opportunities to put the “new” Republican party, in its proper light. She has failed, in her second and final term no less, to save Michigan from itself. She has failed, I am afraid, to show the majority of Michigan voters, that the Republican Party, not of Eisenhower, Nixon (yes, Virginia, Nixon, even being mentally ill, was by historical standards, not bad, Watergate aside) or Ford, but that of the most recent former President.
She has failed to show that the current leaders of the Michigan and National Republican party are obsessed with social engineering of their ownmaking. Obsessed with not raising taxes or government spending when this nation and this dear, beloved state of mine are falling apart, like a house that has fallen into the hands of a rental slumlord. She has failed to show that the Republican party are ersatz conservatives.
For all of her political training and pedigrees, she has shown herself to be a leader in the style of England’s former Prime Minister, Neville Chamberlain. She has seemed only too happy (or feeble) to watch Michigan and it’s once vibrant and unionized middle class be slowly devoured by the current “Axis of Evil” that lies not so much in one particular party, but, in the hearts and fears of Michigan voters.
This used to be one great state and a great state government. However, 12 years of “rule” by a very shrewd, politically and personally ruthless Gubenortorial despot set up this state for the massive failure it now has become in the eyes of the rest of these United States.
It is with the greatest sense of despair and woe in my heart that have watched our current Governor fail in almost every way to match wit for wit the man who preceded her.
On top of that, she may have single handedly set back the perceptions of women as strong, capable, shrewd yet immensely compassionate leaders by fifty years or more.
May God help this blessed state of mine. Darker times, I fear, lay ahead.
Finally, I’ll add this, does anyone remember the Jewish parable of a man named Joseph? A man who, as the story aptly highlights, directed the resources of one of the greatest ancient civilizations to conserve resources, build up a strong metaphorical financial resource base during the “seven years of good times.” Thus ensuring, the nation’s survival when the inevitable cyclical famine and economic downturn would come.
No, I guess not. We’re all too worried about our “taxes” being increased, even if it means many of Michigan’s lifelong residents find themselves subject to the modern day, state government run equivalent of the fabled “Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse” of New Testament Biblical lore.
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