The state budget still isn’t balanced, the legislature is stuck in gridlock, but most of our leaders are firmly against a constitutional convention. Michigan Radio’s Jack Lessenberry thinks we should take another look.
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Last spring the one thing everyone agreed on was that there would be no playing chicken with the state budget this year. None of this going up to the last minute before another government shutdown.
No siree, they were going to get the budget all done by June 30. Well, we are a little more than eight days from another shutdown, and guess what. The budget isn‘t done!
Oh, they are finally passing pieces of it, but a giant iceberg is in the path of the S.S. Michigan. They have to decide what to do about a proposed early retirement plan for state employees, similar to the one imposed on teachers last spring.
The governor and, lame-duck Speaker Andy Dillon support the bill, but many Democrats don’t, because unions don’t. This was a key factor in why Dillon lost the Democratic primary for governor. Labor unions don’t like it because their members in state government would have to pay three percent of their salaries for health insurance.
It doesn’t matter to them that the money just isn’t there. It doesn’t matter to the unions than hundreds of thousands of their brothers in the private sector have no jobs or health insurance at all.
It doesn’t matter to the unions that if they don’t make these concession, the governor will be forced to cut millions in revenue sharing to Michigan communities. That will mean layoffs of municipal workers and fewer services for people.
No, the unions want what they want. So we’re heading for another impasse. State government is broken, and doesn’t look like being fixed soon. I thought of this yesterday, during a debate at Michigan State about whether to hold a constitutional convention.
Voters are going to be asked that in November, by the way. Should we call a convention and have them try and write a new constitution? If we vote yes, then the convention will go to work, and when they are done, we’ll have another choice.
We’ll vote to decide if we want to adopt the new constitution, or keep the old one. You should know, by the way, that almost all the establishment forces who have helped get us in the mess we are in are firmly against a convention.
A spokesman for the Michigan Chamber of Commerce said he was afraid that the special interests would dominate the process of electing delegates. That struck me as funny, since the special interest he represents tries hard to dominate elections.
Dianne Byrum, a former leader of the Democrats in the House, said the convention would paralyze economic development, because businesses seeking to invest wouldn’t know what to expect.
She didn’t mention that they don’t know now what to expect either. Three years ago, the dysfunctional legislature slapped a 22 percent surcharge on the Michigan Business tax at the last minute.
Craig Ruff, a longtime policy maker who is now with Public Sector consultants, thinks we ought to take a chance.
Trust the voters and trust ourselves to do the right thing. He said the opponents of a constitutional convention’s slogan should be “The only thing we have to fear is change itself.”
What I know is that the status quo isn‘t working. The ice is getting thinner by the day.
Seems to me it might be a good time to learn to swim.
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