Peter Luke brings up a point that I hadn't really thought about before- DeVos is running against the Republican Michigan legislature. As much as I like to throw stones at those guys, maybe it's time to look at where they have cooperated and/or shaped legislation. Heh heh.
In trying to define himself as a distinct alternative to Jennifer Granholm, Republican Dick DeVos will first have to crack the mutual aid society formed between Democrat Granholm and GOP lawmakers.
Both the incumbent governor and the Republicans who run the House and Senate have one common goal in 2006: Getting re-elected.
So if it all goes to form, marginally improving tax receipts will allow both sides to agree on a continuation budget that provides spending increases for schools without the fee and tax hikes required in the past.
Riddle me this- how is it our tax receipts have increased when the economy is supposedly so horrible? Rising property values alone?
DeVos' first TV ad implies that Lansing is driven by partisan division that is thwarting help for manufacturing and investment in life sciences and other advanced technologies. But Republican lawmakers and Granholm this year will run for new terms proclaiming that they already have cut taxes for manufacturers and set up $1 billion in new financing for research in those new technologies.
DeVos said in his ad that "it's time to pull together, get things done." Republican legislators could argue that that is precisely what they have been doing.
Now, DeVos and the GOP could claim that even more would get done with one party in control of everything. That Michigan could move into a "new (Republican-led) direction." Though DeVos deserves time to fill in the details of what he would do, Republicans have been pretty vague as to the direction they would move unfettered by a Democratic governor.
And look what happened in Washington when we let the Republicans run everything. That statement alone sends shivers through my spine. You know exactly what the Republicans would do if left to their own devices. I don't need to spell it out. There is a reason they are "vague". They just don't dare tell you what they would do because they would never get elected. Quite simply- they lie. And they hurt people.
In response to the first Democratic governor in a dozen years, Republicans have either rejected what Granholm has proposed or, more often, claimed co-authorship of what they do like or rewritten what they don't.
DeVos' ad contains gloomy images of shuttered plants and vacated shop floors. What have Republican lawmakers by themselves proposed to change that? Well, not much. They don't like the Single Business Tax. But when the ball was in their court to rewrite it last year after rejecting the overhaul plan Granholm served up, the GOP whiffed.
Conservative economists say the personal property tax on business is arguably worse than the SBT. Yet lawmakers haven't found a way to seriously address that tax. Deep cuts in that levy would gut the public school funding they are so fond of.
You think Dickie is done with his vouchers? Think again. He spent a lot of money and time on that- it will be back.
The state budget Granholm proposed on Feb. 9 will likely be approved by the Legislature and signed into law by the Fourth of July. It should be the smoothest process since Granholm took office.
In making his case for change to Michigan voters, DeVos is promising to bring practical business-based solutions to Lansing -- the implication being that Lansing has no clue.
Granholm will beg to differ. And though Republican loyalty would seem to prevent it, so too could the GOP-run Legislature.
Practical business solutions. Nowadays that means cut benefits, cut staff, cut pay, outsource whatever you can. Give yourself a big bonus.
Is that what we want for Michigan?