Essay: Budget Balancing - 4/12/07

If present trends continue, sooner or later, you’ll have to go to a Secretary of State branch office to renew your driver’s license.

And it will be closed. You may need a policeman and not be able to find one. Chunks of concrete from your local overpass may fall on your car. And if any of that happens, you are going to want to blame someone.   So let me tell you who to blame, dear listener. You can blame yourself. We are all to blame, as are the last two governors and hundreds of irresponsible legislators.

But most of all, you can blame something called term limits, which the voters, against the advice of the politicians, enacted in 1992.  When they kicked in a few years later, they ensured that nobody would ever again have much incentive to make the hard and responsible decisions we pay our legislators to make.

That’s because the most important decisions tend to have long-term consequences.  We may need to make financial decisions for this state that would require short-term pain, but which will bear fruit ten years from now. But for a legislator, that’s forever.

Fifteen years ago, we amended our state constitution to say you can serve a maximum of six years in the house, eight years in the senate, and then you are done for life. No matter how good a lawmaker you are; no matter how much the voters want you to continue.

What means that we are effectively telling these people that we want instant gratification. Forget planning and planting for the future; let’s eat up that seed corn.  Let’s give everybody tax cuts and loot any rainy day funds the state has set aside.

How much revenue can we count on? How about if we pretend it is still 1999, the year term limits fully kicked in. Yes, let’s assume domestic auto sales are going great and the NASDAQ stock index is still at five thousand. We have peace, prosperity and a federal budget surplus.  Indeed, we did have all those things in 1999.

We don’t have them anymore, but our lawmakers have been making budget assumptions for years based on that economy. Former Congressman Joe Schwarz told me this back when he was still in the state senate. He also predicted what is happening now. 

Michigan is on the point of becoming a national laughingstock and having our credit rating downgraded to that of the Weimar Republic.

And still our politicians dither.  The governor doesn’t seem to control even her own party. Republicans seem interested only in further cutting taxes, and not in our shared quality of life.

You might want to ask what kind of state you want to live in, and whether clutching your tax cut in your cave is really what you want.  Frankly, I have lived in an era of good public schools, responsible government and smallpox vaccinations, and it worked.

So let’s go back to that future, please. Now.

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Comments

[PE]

Mr. Lessenberry,

I wonder if anyone has ever asked some of the businesses which have left our state, or decided to locate elsewhere, if a term-limited legislature affects those decisions. The best business decisions are ones based on known quantities. The only thing we can count on in Michigan is there will be not one elected decision maker with more than 8 years of on the job experience. What kind of message is that for an entrepeneur looking for a stable political climate to build their business?

[Rose Bogaert]

You can not possibly believe what you wrote. We are one of six states with a full-time legislature. If you take the time to read the nonsense our legislature spends their time and our money on, you would know why we are so poorly governed.

You want pork? Let's go back to the days with the likes of Jacobetti. You want stonger lobbyist influence? Then,turn that clock back. People in this state have had to repeatedly take to the streets because we were not represented or considdered during the decision making process.

If you think it is the term-limited legislature that is causing business to leave your wrong. Even the State Chamber of commerse supported it. Now they want to extend the reprsentative terms a little but I believe thats because it is hard to influence someone that hasn't been there long enough to get real chummy.

We will take to the streets again and again until they get it right.
Take the day off work, clear the calendar, gather your family and friends, and head to Lansing on April 18! Join Michigan Taxpayers Alliance, Americans for Prosperity, The Wayne County Taxpayers, The Kalamazoo Taxpayers and other grassroots organizations make Lansing understand we want no more taxes.
At every step we've heard from small-business people (including contractors, realtors, restaurant owners, and others) who say Governor Granholm's tax plan would do their businesses in. Our state government spending continues to increase every single year, while our own incomes are going down and jobs are bleeding out of our state on a daily basis.

It is now even more important than ever to spread the word to all taxpayers about the Taxpayer Protest Rally! April 18 is the taxpayers' day to come to the Michigan Capitol and let Governor Granholm and our state lawmakers know we will not stand for job-killing tax increases. Our goal is to fill the Capitol lawn with men and women like us -- men and women who are working hard to support our families while Michigan weathers this economic storm.

We need you to come and join the voices of the hard-working men and women of our state in saying 'enough is enough! Tell Lansing politicians to balance their budget by cutting spending and enacting reforms; NOT BY RAISING TAXES ON CITIZENS! Get to the Capitol around 10:00am. Rally starts at 11:00am, but you will need time to park.

Bring a tea bag to give to Governor Granholm. Bring your children to watch democracy in action. Bring as many friends as you can to ensure taxpayers' voices will be heard in Lansing on April 18!

If you have any questions about the rally, please contact Rose Bogaert with the Wayne County Taxpayers Association at [email protected].

Thank you!

Rose Bogaert, Chair
Wayne County Taxpayers Association, Inc.

[Celeste Whiting]

Term limits place the state in a chronic election cycle. Short term concerns drive decision making in Lansing. Election focused partisan politics and parochial tunnel vision shape strategy and priorities. Term limits ensure that a certain portion of legislators are always at the bottom of a steep learning curve. The possibility of developing institutional memory is lost to a structurally imposed high turnover rate. Is there a business anywhere that would insist on kicking out the most experienced employees on a regular basis?

[Rose Bogaert]

Will you please quit changing my comments to suit yourself.

[Rose Bogaert]

Will you please quit rewriting my comments.

[Rose Bogaert]

Will you please quit rewriting my comments.