The move, pending year-long studies of the so-called Hudson's site on Woodward and vacant Statler Hotel site, would consolidate at least 4,000 employees in the new Quicken headquarters from sites in Livonia and other suburbs. It also would turbocharge a corporate revival of downtown led by General Motors Corp., Compuware Corp., Ilitch Holdings Inc., new casino-and-hotel complexes and a vibrant entertainment district.

(Quicken boss Dan) Gilbert and Kilpatrick envision the downtown headquarters as the centerpiece of a mega development combining retail, condominiums and a technology park -- the cornerstone of an initiative they're calling "Detroit 2.0."

"This is big," Kilpatrick said, describing a package of state and local incentives that could total as much as $200 million over the next 20 years.

Now, admittedly, I'm a Detroit homer.  No, I've never lived there, but I've visited frequently on the campaign trail and during my leisure time.  I love the city.  I love most of the people.  I hate the way they vote, but outside of a labor day parade here and there running up against union thugs who'd never think of living in the city themselves, I've never had a bad experience there.

Well, there was the time when that homeless guy tried to steal a coworker's car at gunpoint, but c'mon, that was just an isolated incident.

Mix it all up and shake it all out and I love the D.  I'm thrilled to hear that Quicken Loans is going to go ahead and make the giant investment and commitment in the center of the city.  A Grand Rapids native, I know the power of a strong and vibrant center city.  If you live here or have visited in the last decade you've seen what I'm talking about.

This is one more step in that direction for Detroit.  They've got a lot more to go, but it's progress.

Now, my friends on the left of the political spectrum find themselves in a precarious position this morning.  They claim to love Detroit and when they read the headlines proclaiming "4,000 jobs to Detroit" there are probably a half dozen or so who all but wet themselves anticipating the opportunity to talk about a little good news.  

Then comes the money shot.  Literally.  $200 million in tax rebates and incentives from the state and the city.  Ouch.  Another company getting rich at the expense of the little-guy, no doubt.  These days most on the left haven't met a tax incentive they didn't hate in public.  

And while they battle back and forth with that internal dialogue (happy or sad, thrilled or ticked, to tax or not to tax) the suburbs aren't happy.  Livonia isn't happy.  They're going to lose a heck of a lot of tax revenue.  Quicken's other locations aren't happy.  And you'd better believe there are a lot of employees who aren't looking forward to the commute.  

South east Michigan's union legacy workforce takes great pride in working hard enough to get the heck out of Detroit and there's a palpable sentiment of relief when one's able to move and work away from the D.  So much for that.  

Another bout of good news bad news surrounding the idea of significant reform of the legislature itself.  The Associated Press reports that an unnamed citizen group is preparing a petition drive to give the voters a chance to create a smaller, part-time legislature, something that a lot of folks seem pretty keen on these days.

The trick is, it may be connected to a move that most "reform the legislature" advocates aren't quite as keen on these days.  The AP:

The proposal would call for limiting the Legislature to 90 session days. The number of lawmakers would drop from the current 148 to 100. Lawmakers would not get lifetime health benefits and salaries would be frozen.

The proposal would extend the length of term limits for some elected officials.

This one's even got me dealing with conflicting emotions.  I'm personally not a fan of the part-time legislature.  Don't get me wrong... I am a fan of smaller, leaner, more efficient government.  Of limited government action.  Of increased personal freedom.  But as I've argued before, a move to a part-time legislature and a greatly reduced salary will, in essence, make service in Lansing something that's only attainable by the upper middle class and the wealthy.

Middle class, blue collar folks simply won't be able to run.  They just don't work the sort of jobs that you can pick up and leave for three months during the year and they wouldn't be able to afford it if they could.  

That said, I'd love to see term limits repealed.  Increase personal freedom.  Let us choose who we want to elect.  

And finally, in today's ultimate example of good news / bad news, the state's this close to saving a boat-load of cash on an expired expense but for every action there's an equal and opposite reaction.  The FREEP reports that the Southern Michigan Correctional Facility in Jackson will be shuttered on Saturday.

Michigan Department of Corrections spokesman Russ Marlan tells the Jackson Citizen Patriot the state expects the closure to save about $38 million a year.

All of the 1,400-bed facility's inmates have been lodged at other Michigan prisons.

About 300 prisoners were moved in July. And 606 medically fragile inmates were moved in the last month to facilities throughout the state.

Saving $38 million is a good thing.  Transferring the jobs without killing them outright is a good thing.  Now, the Jackson area's going to hurt as a result, but maybe a bigger issue is the fact that all of those prisoners were also transferred.  To other facilities.  While we continue to hear time and again from the administration that we've got an overcrowding problem.

Government has a few explicit and necessary functions.  Law enforcement is one of them.  Without a mechanism to keep the bad guys off the streets this society would be in a pretty bad way.  So this is where we cut dollars?  Creating further overcrowding problems?

We can spend over $100 million in the law-and-order fight on a new MSP headquarters that MSP doesn't want but we can't prevent over crowding?  

We can grant unlimited welfare benefits to able-bodied adults but we can't do better when it comes to locking up the bad guys?

We can increase the size and scope of state government while raising taxes by BILLIONS, creating the largest budget in the history of the state but we need to close prisons?

I like streamlined government.  I do.  And this closure may even be something that needed to happen or was long overdue.  But when we look at it in light of some of the Governor's other spending priorities... well... someone's got their priorities out of whack.