Who is up to the daunting task of being the next governor to run and fix a state that is among those in greatest fiscal peril -- one where both parties are addicted to stop-gap cures and have long dithered on economic reform?
Additional fodder for Michigan's 2010 gubernatorial campaign debate came last week in a sobering report by a national public policy think tank that listed Michigan third among nine states in the most danger of following California into fiscal disaster.
"Michigan's recovery is going to be a long haul," the Washington, D.C.-based Pew Center on the States said of a state that has had the highest jobless rate in the nation, periodic budget deficits, ranked 37th for per-capita income in 2008 and could, the report says, join the 10 poorest states this year.
"Even if the state were to immediately begin growing at the rapid rates of the 1990s, it would be 2025 or 2030 before it replaced all the jobs it lost this decade."
Given that term limits allow governors only two, four-year terms, the next governor or two could be long gone before then.
Last week, two contenders to be the next governor released fiscal proposals worthy of note:
n Ann Arbor venture capitalist Rick Snyder, who trails some other Republican contenders in polls but not in ideas, trumpeted a "Value for Money" budget process that calls for budgeting for two years at a time and asking citizens to rank what programs they support.
Other candidates, wisely, have proposed two-year budgets; Snyder cites other states that have had success in the approach he advocates; and Gov. Jennifer Granholm at the outset of her administration did "ask-the-citizens" tours on priorities.
But Snyder did a nice job of packaging and promoting the idea as "our first in a series of bold reform policy plans on our failing budget system."
In a swipe at most others in both parties running for governor, businessman Snyder, seeking his first elective office, said: "The current administration and career politicians have offered us empty rhetoric about reform priorities while failing to offer fiscal responsibility through one of the worst economic downturns in Michigan's history."
Snyder vowed to increase transparency by putting the state's spending online. Republican Attorney General Mike Cox, a front-tier candidate for governor, has been ahead of the pack on that issue, and has done that with his office's spending.
n In a speech before the Lapeer Economic Club that was an olive branch to business, Lt. Gov. John Cherry, the heavily labor-backed leading contender for the Democratic nomination, called for the controversial, complicated Michigan Business Tax (MBT) to be replaced by a profit-based system.
Cherry said: "Businesses in Michigan are suffering and we need a common sense approach to the state's tax system. I don't think it's fair that businesses are seeing their tax liability increase while they are losing money in what is undeniably the worst economic conditions we've experienced in more than 40 years."
He called a profits tax an equitable one that will level the playing field and make Michigan's business tax competitive with that levied in other states.
"In order to see our economy rebound, Michigan has to attract business investment," said Cherry. "Having a simple and predictable business tax similar to other states will be the necessary jolt our economy needs."
Congressional watch
Two northern Michigan congressmen have pivotal roles in the Capitol Hill debate on health care. The role of Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Menominee, was summarized by Wall Street columnist William McGurn, who said not many folks in Washington have made House Speaker Nancy Pelosi "cry 'uncle.'"
McGurn said Stupak did that by getting her to cave and allow the vote that led to the ban on taxpayer dollars for abortion being extended to the new federal programs being created by the House-passed bill.
Rep. Dave Camp, of Midland, ranking Republican on the House Ways and Means Committee, was a critic of President Barack Obama's health care approach, and introduced the GOP proposal that went nowhere in the Democratic-ruled House
The other northern congressman, Rep. Pete Hoekstra of Holland, the ranking Republican on the House Intelligence Committee and a candidate for governor, had high visibility in the national media as a critic of the Obama administration's decision to try the 9/11 terrorists in a New York federal court rather than a military tribunal.
George Weeks retired in 2006 after 22 years as political columnist for The Detroit News. His weekly Michigan Politics column is syndicated by Superior Features.
