"But threatening the legislature without putting forth the effort and the fight to generate the revenue we need to meet the needs of our citizens is just hollow."
Hollow. Right. At the same time, this arrived in the inbox from a Google news alert...
"Granholm pushes revenue plan with local districts"
Gov. Jennifer Granholm promised to veto any proposed cuts in education for the 2011 budget, but suggested Monday that Monroe County districts prepare for the worst.
During a conference call with officials from Monroe Public and Mason Consolidated schools, Gov. Granholm touted her plan to raise revenue by extending the sales tax to services while dropping the tax rate half a percentage point.
... and also this, from WJRT TV serving the Flint/Saginaw area, where it seems the governor had called them, too...
Carrollton Superintendent Craig Douglas believes the governor is more determined than ever to hold school district harmless this next fiscal year.
But he says a lot will be left up to lawmakers who must find a way to eliminate a projected deficit of more than $1.5 billion.
That was just yesterday's "effort". Last week, Governor Granholm spoke with the Grand Rapids Press editorial board, and also went on WOOD TV's "To The Point" weekly political TV show, pushing her revenue plan. And before that, she was hounding the feds in DC, to try and get funding from them. Matter of fact, since the State of the State, she's been on radio and TV in Detroit, radio in Lansing, who knows how many other questions fielded from reporters in other towns, do I really need to go back and find them all? - once again, all in the name of putting forth the "effort" in generating the "revenue we need to meet the needs of our citizens".
The "effort" from the House Democrats? Well, so sorry, Speaker Dillon already ratted you guys out.
“You know we did a couple of retreats with the caucus and I put the question before them and said if there is not a deal with the Senate, how many of you wanna make a statement and vote for revenues?” Dillon said. “It was a very small number.”
“Now if there was an agreement with the Senate, then I think, we’ll struggle, but I think we could find the votes for it. But my caucus doesn’t want to just walk the plank,” he said.
Funding schools and public safety is considered "walking the plank" by the House Democrats, so they are going to do an all-cuts budget first, or work on "reforms", or whatever excuse they are going to use this week to avoid making the tough calls. Who knows, the story keeps changing. Why? They are more concerned about their own jobs than they are the future of this state or the needs of the citizens. So, what are they going to do next? Kick the can down the road some more.
Last week, the Education Committee in the Democratic House said it would spend at least a month looking for school reforms to save money.
Know what happens in a month? Spring Break! That takes us to the middle of April. Then we will probably have to wait on the May revenue conference. So forth and so on and then it's June and then it's too late and we've seen this movie twice before already. The ending isn't pretty.
I don't like shooting at my own team. I think it's bad strategy. But, hey, if certain House Democrats are going to declare open season on a Democratic leader who IS out there "putting forth the effort and the fight to generate the revenue we need", while the caucus sits back and does nothing but worry about their own careers as they run for future office or solicit that great lobbying job, then it's only fair that I point out the hypocrisy in their statements and behavior.
Consider it my effort in the fight to "generate the revenue we need", because God knows I can't count on the House Democrats to do it.