The question is quickly becoming, how much more can Michigan residents take?

And it looks like a lot of folks are answering that question with their feet.  By way of a recap, foreclosure rates in Michigan right now are off the charts (one in eighty homes in metro Detroit has been foreclosed).  Homes are sitting on the market for months, years even, and many, if they do sell, are going for tens of thousands of dollars less than they're worth.  Mind you, at the same time the tax burden on homeowners is going up and that's before Granholm started pushing a $3 billion tax hike.

A few folks seem to have found a creative way to avoid foreclosure and a severe hit to their credit rating.  According to today's DetNews, more and more owners who can't sell are just plain giving the bank their homes.  

Job losses and unemployment lines and trends within the state and horrible economic news all speak to the problems this state is having under Granholm's failed attempt at leadership.  But I don't know any trend that speaks louder about just how bad things have gotten with her "in charge."  Many people are literally finding that their best option is to give away their homes!  

The News reports:

"But at Michigan's largest foreclosure law firm, Trott and Trott in Bingham Farms, deeds in lieu of foreclosure rose 35 percent in 2006. Looking at the firm's data, attorney Dave Trott estimates there were more than 1,000 deeds in lieu of foreclosure in Michigan last year."

The world has apparently gone crazy.  

But don't worry, there is some leadership coming out of Lansing.  Just ask Michigan's first gentleman Daniel Granholm-Mulhern.  AP's Kathy Barks Hoffman has a relatively even keeled piece out this morning promoting Daniel's new book ($50 in hardcover for 200 pages... now we know why his wife thinks its OK to make residents pay through the nose to fatten her administration) and his radio program debuting this coming Monday.

She points out that he's taking a more and more visible role in his wife's administration.  See, I'm split on this.  On the one hand, his school-girlish crush on Toyota executives and their profits don't mix well with his hatred for American companies who remain in the black (maybe because they have the audacity to succeed despite his wife's best efforts?) do not make him the sort of guy you want running state government, and Mrs. Mulhern Granholm has openly admitted he is her number one advisor.

On the other hand, he makes it soooooo easy to point out the administration's shortcomings.

Either way, I'll be listening to his radio show!

Of course, one of the groups that his wife just can't seem to help lately are her beloved unions.  Looks like the
UAW's healthcare concessions in 2005 haven't been the boon to GM they were intended to be and their upcoming contract negotiations will once again be contentious.

Just plain nothing is going right in this economy right now.  When one industry is struggling its easy enough to point fingers elsewhere, but when it's the entire state... well, the buck has to stop somewhere, doesn't it?  Oh, well, maybe not.  Just keep passing it, Madame Governor.  

So long as you aren't reaching for more.  Or 3 billion more.

Which brings us to an improving attitude at the Lansing State Journal (why not go out on a happy note).  Derek Melot is suggesting that the state use a touch test on government spending.  Pay for the roads.  Pay for the hard services.  Stop trying to do nice things to influence behavior.

He points out:

"We simply don't need all the stuff we have government do.

Please note, there's a difference between "need" and "desire." Lots of things government does we desire, but we do not need."

And with that, ladies and gentlemen, I have no disagreement.  Props to the LSJ for coming around (at least a bit).