Historic decisions for Michigan
With Gov. Granholm’s state of the state speech scheduled for tonight, a serious discussion about the future of Michigan is about to begin.
I spent some time over the weekend at a Michigan Press Association meeting in Grand Rapids that included talks by the governor, the speaker of the House and the Senate president. All were using terms like historic crisis, new vision for Michigan’s future, and rare opportunity to re-invent our state.
The consensus seemed to be that Michigan’s economic crisis is so deep and pervasive it can’t be solved in the usual ways. Budget cuts, in the traditional sense, won’t work. The revenue hole is too deep. Tax increases, in the usual ways, also won’t work. We can’t tax ourselves out of this mess, either.
I was relieved to see that there was little blaming going on. It doesn’t matter who’s fault it is. The decline of the U.S. auto industry; past largesse when there was plenty of money to throw around; Republicans, Democrats; managment, unions; it doesn’t matter.
What impressed me was the apparent willingness by both parties and both branches of government to work together to find solutions. I suspect, if her speech last week was any clue, that Gov. Granholm is going to focus on the need to create a new vision of the Michigan we want in our future, then re-engineer our government to get there.
It won’t be easy, and that’s a huge understatement. There are plenty of people, groups and organizations with a vested interest in the past. They’d rather go down with the ship than change course.
There are others who will want to shrink state government to stay within our current tax base - even if it means cutting our nose off to spite our face. Cuts in higher education - when the global marketplace is screaming out for a more highly educated workforce - would fit in that category.
And others will want to simply turn the tax tap higher, strangling the economy in the process. While creating a vibrant future for Michigan requires financing essential services and priming the pump in key areas like education and economic development, we can’t afford high-tax solutions.
The next few months could be historic. We could look back to 2007 as the year Michigan’s economic crisis forced a thoughtful, significant re-engineering of state government and how it operates.
And while I’m engaging in wishful thinking, it also could be the year when state leaders put aside their political differences and worked together.
Wouldn’t that be nice.