They’ll probably be wrestling with that for weeks. But for the rest of us, it’s time to get back to doing our jobs. And in the case of the legislature, that means the unpleasant and difficult task of finishing the budget. Actually, two budgets.
They have to somehow plug a couple hundred million dollar deficit hole for the current fiscal year, and then finish and passing a balanced budget for the next fiscal year, which starts October 1. If they don’t get that done in time, we’ll have another government shutdown again. Which is exactly what Michigan doesn’t need. However, we are also in an election about our future. So I have a couple of radical, or maybe not so radical, proposals to make.
First of all, when the legislature reconvenes next week, Speaker of the House Andy Dillon and Senate Majority Leader Mike Bishop should step down. I’m not suggesting they resign from the legislature; they should serve out their last four and a half months.
But they should resign from the leadership.
The Democratic gubernatorial primary was in large measure a referendum on Dillon’s record, and it was a landslide vote of no confidence. Bishop hasn’t covered himself with glory either, or done anything other than block any attempt at creative government by repeating an unthinking “no” to any mention of new revenue.
Besides, he’s still running. He’s preoccupied with trying to get the GOP nomination for attorney general at their state convention later this summer. He should be free to concentrate on that.
Both parties and both chambers will have to pick new leaders in January, leaders who are almost certainly going to be from among the lawmakers already in office.
So why not jump-start the process and see if new leaders can do a better job getting it done now? True, everybody who isn’t term-limited is running for re-election this year, and making hard decisions may not be the easiest way to win votes.
But tough. They asked for this. Now here’s the second part of my not-very-radical suggestion:
We the people should demand that Virg Bernero, the Democratic nominee for governor, and Rick Snyder, the Republican nominee, weigh in on the budget process. They won’t want to, of course. They’d rather get elected running against it.
But that’s too bad. They should be pressured to step up. We put the facts in front of them and say, okay, here are the numbers. Now, how would you balance this budget?
Then we publish their solutions, and study them.
That would give us an important chance to see how they would govern and what their priorities are. We aren‘t buying lawn chairs here. We are choosing a leader for Michigan at a time of profound crisis, when we need to make hard and far-reaching decisions.
We’re still the automobile state, and we should treat our candidates like any other off-road vehicles:
We’d be nuts not to take them on a test drive before we buy.
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