To sum it up, she plans to do it with paper clips, baling wire, accounting tricks and robbing Peter to pay Paul.
That's pretty sad, if inevitable. Granholm has never been a dominating presence in Lansing, and these days has less clout than ever. In five months, she’ll be gone.
To be fair, the budget process was screwed up long before she arrived. It‘s based on unrealistic assumptions nobody’s had the political will to change. What‘s needed is major, honest, structural reform, based roughly on what they used to call “zero-based budgeting.” What should happen is this:
Our leaders need to look at state government from head to toe, determine what the state needs to be doing, and how much it costs.
Once that is done, they need to enact the best, fairest and most economically rational way to pay for it.
Yes, sacred cows of the left, right, and center would be sacrificed. But in the end, we might have a government that worked.
For years, we’ve waited for Governor Granholm to come up with such a plan - especially after her landslide re-election victory four years ago. But it never happened.
Two years ago, she did tentatively propose consolidating eighteen departments into eight new streamlined ones. But she backed off the moment it was criticized.
So now she’s in her final months, and has not one, but two budgets to balance. A few days ago, hints were being dropped that she planned to do this with a combination of cuts and new revenue. That would make the most sense, except for one thing. Republicans still control the Michigan Senate, and Majority Leader Mike Bishop’s consistent bleat has been no new taxes.
No matter what. So the governor backed down. She now proposes this. She’d eliminate a three hundred million dollar gap in the current budget by taking $94 million in federal Medicare funding that was supposed to be applied to next year.
Then she would take $208 million from the School Aid Fund, which is meant for elementary and high school education.
Now, here’s how she proposes to solve next year’s budget problem. First, cut every state agency by three percent. Supposedly, that can be done without having to lay anyone off.
Right. Then, in a version of the classic shell game, the governor wants to change the rules for abandoned personal property so it reverts to the state faster. And, she’d sell rights to distribute liquor to the highest bidder.
My money is on Don Corleone. Then she’d throw in a tax amnesty program, and voila - a balanced budget.
On paper, anyway. The lawmakers ought to like it; they can pass this stuff rapidly, maybe after a little whining from the schools, and get out of town to campaign.
A month ago I went to Lansing to see former Attorney General Frank Kelley, the governor’s mentor. He told me he’d met with her that morning about her legacy. What she’s accomplished in office. And I’ve wondered ever since just what that could be.
It appears more and more likely that our current governor is a lost cause. Hopefully our next governor and the 96th Legislature can do a better job of getting Michigan prepared for economic growth. That's why Business Leaders for Michigan, the state's business roundtable, is promoting the Michigan Turnaround Plan. It's exactly what our state needs: make our business tax structure more competitive for job growth and invest in govt programs that will yield growth in the economy, particularly in education and transportation.
Posted by: Jeffrey Donald Walsh | August 22, 2010 at 01:09 PM
I forgot to post a link to the Turnaround Plan. http://www.michiganturnaroundplan.com.
Posted by: Jeffrey Donald Walsh | August 22, 2010 at 01:09 PM