You may think you have heard enough about Michigan's state budget mess to last a lifetime. But here's something else you need to know. Virtually nobody is trying to do anything about the real problem. Now, if you've been following the news, you know the battles over this year's state budget are not yet over, almost a month after everything was legally supposed to be done.
While a government shutdown the day after Halloween is increasingly unlikely, it is still a possibility. But what is more troubling is that everybody in government knows this isn't a one-time crisis.
As Speaker of the House Andy Dillon tersely said last week, "Next year will be worse." So will every year after that, unless and until the squabbling bands of partisans in the legislature are willing to become statesmen, and address the deeper issue here.
What's really wrong is this. We are depending on a system designed in an era when automobiles and manufacturing were king. When workers did their jobs in one single location, and made high salaries for making stuff -- primarily, cars and car parts.
Everything in our economy was based on that.
That's all changed now. The auto industry has shrunken, and while it may survive, it employs far fewer people. In the future, automotive salaries are going to be smaller.
The parts of the economy that are growing, here and everywhere, are the so-called service sectors. But we don't tax services. If I buy a muffler, I pay sales tax on it. If I pay you to install it on my car, you don't pay a penny in tax on that money.
Incredibly, however, few are talking much about a needed major overhaul of the way the government works. Yesterday, I talked to one man who is. Tom Watkins has never been in the legislature, but spent years dealing with the system as state superintendent of schools.
"Those who think we can simply cut or tax our way out of these budget problems are delusional. It is change-or-die time for Michigan," Watkins said. Here's what he suggests.
To close the deficit and avoid doing horrendous harm to our future, the legislature should agree to a temporary tax increase that would be phased out completely in two or three years.
Then, they look at who, how, and what we tax.
And move towards these other long-term reforms:
First, enact a single health care plan for all government workers, much like the one Speaker Dillon has suggested.
Next, come up with a rational process for consolidating many of our smaller school districts and combining local government services.
Change pension plans from a system of defined benefits to one based on contributions. These much-needed changes will save vast amounts of money. "Then," Watkins said, "if these reforms don't get done in time, major cuts kick in and the lawmakers and the people who elected them have no one to blame but themselves."
He says our lawmakers in Lansing need to be asked: Which side are they on? Will they keep fighting for the dying status quo?
Or will they stand up for the collective future of our state?
Everything depends on whether they, and we, answer that question in the right way.
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