Essay: Praise for the Governor - 2.1.10

Governor Granholm startled many on Friday when she unveiled a tough government reform plan that calls for considerable sacrifice. Michigan Radio’s Political Analyst Jack Lessenberry takes a closer look…

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We’ve all seen those situation comedies where a man decides to change his behavior. His wife comes home to find the dishes done and put away and the whole house clean. She stares, turns to the man and screams… “What have you done with my husband!”

Frankly, I have to confess I felt a little like that last week. First, Governor Jennifer Granholm startled me by embracing the idea of a constitutional convention, something that I have long felt was our last best hope of fixing our largely dysfunctional state government.

Then, however, she really did blow me away at the end of the week by unveiling a tough, gutsy, and sensible plan for government reform which could be a significant first step in coping with the mess we are in. To bring you up to date:

Thanks to the economy and a flawed budgeting process, Michigan is once again facing what could be almost a three billion dollar federal deficit for the fiscal year beginning this fall.

President Obama’s stimulus money is nearly gone. There is no more easy fat to cut from state government. Unless a combination of intelligent sacrifices are made and lawmakers agree to some new revenue, higher education could be permanently crippled.

The state, unlike the federal government, has to balance its books somehow. Having strong research and teaching universities that Michigan residents can afford to attend is our best hope.

Hope for a prosperous future.

For years, I have been sharply critical of the governor for her failure to make hard decisions. But she is now doing just that.

She is proposing legislation that would all but force state workers and teachers to retire after thirty years on the job. That would save the state more than a billion dollars over the next decade.

They would also pay more towards their retirement funds. New school employees would have pensions based partly on contributions. Former legislators would lose lifetime retirement benefits, something long overdue in this age of term limits.

This plan immediately drew howls of protest from her union allies, many of whom seem to think this is 1965. Guess what. It’s not. Ninety-one percent of the General Motors jobs that were here thirty years ago are gone, and they are never coming back.

The governor’s plan is far superior to the one being promoted by Senate Majority Leader Mike Bishop. Here’s one example. The governor would require state employees to pay 20 percent of their health care costs. The senator would extend that to every public employee, and also cut their salaries by five percent.

That would be an open invitation to every academic superstar at our major universities to move elsewhere. We could say goodbye to giants like Sean Morrison and Juan Cole.

Interestingly, while Senator Bishop’s plan would hurt school janitors more, he is unwilling to give up the lifetime pension he is due to receive after he leaves Lansing at the ripe old age of forty-three.

We are in for some difficult times. The key question is whether we will make sacrifices that will allow us to build a better future, or whether we will do what no farmer would, and eat our seed corn.

The governor has offered an intelligent plan that is at least a reasonable start.

Comments

[Anonymous]

If Jennifer Granholm had made such a sensible and financially sound proposal 7 or 8 years ago, she'd have been called a ...

Republican.

[JT]

So it's a good thing to force out the most experienced and best teachers? What will schools do when all those teachers resign on Thursday, September 30? This plan is not well thought-out at best, draconian and union-busting at worst. I guess the children of Michigan are no longer a priority for the government; treating schools like nothing more than business entities will not solve the problem. What Lansing needs to do is find sources of revenue, not cut already bleeding schools.

[Middleman]

As a state employee and a parent with kids in school, I believe there are a lot of qualified people waiting in the ranks to do the job. Yes, these retirees will be missed because they are our co-workers and friends but they have been training us for a long time. We're ready.

[Matt]

I wouldn't sweat the pay cuts in any form as to creating a flood of educators or government employees leaving their profession or this state .. Not that this would necessarily be a bad thing. Where would they go? Michigan is at the top of the heap for public sector pay (especially when adjusted for COL). A 5% temp cut and 20% co pay isn't going to significantly change this fact - we'd still be higher than average.

Constitutional convention... what??? Do you or Gov think that this wouldn't be an even bigger circus than we have now? This would be the mother of all black eyes for our state. You and the Gov must just be looking at the entertainment value as she runs out the door.