Today we feature Pero's response.

The Governor's plea to invest in our future is right. But she's wrong to invest in the same old government, the same old inefficiencies, the same old indifference. This will produce nothing more than the same old results, which will keep Michigan down in the same old position...on our knees.

Now is the time to shake up our state. Turn it upside down.

And we can begin with the people we elect.

Cut their pay and send them home, as Lamar ALEXANDER said about the U.S. Congress back in the mid-1990s.

Only now, in 2007, in Michigan, let's make the Legislature part time and cut much of the expensive and excessive staff that's looking for ways to tax families and regulate job providers.

A part-time legislature means just that - fewer days in Lansing, fewer vacations and "holiday" recesses. When our elected officials come to the Capitol, put them to work on a tight calendar set in the Constitution. Come into session in early January. Meet 45 days a year. Adjourn by May 1. Go home. Save the taxpayers money and the goofy iPod giveaways. Cut the staff in half, too. We don't need 6,437 chiefs of staff or however many there are.

Michigan is one of only four states in the country classified "full time" by the National Council of State Legislatures. The others are New York, California and Pennsylvania.

America can get along just fine with three.

I can hear the wailing now. The state will collapse (hint, it already is). Plagues of locusts will devour the Capitol dome (anything is possible if you believe all the global warming hysteria). Lobbyists will pour forth from every manhole cover and elevator (wink, they already do, and they all look pretty snappy too).

This sky is falling doomsday scenario is all nonsense.

In my travels around the country these past three years fighting personal injury lawyers on behalf of business liability reform, I have encountered many part time legislatures and legislators. The institutions are solid. The legislators are hard working and committed. And part time. When their work is done they go home to their other jobs.

Montana meets every two years. So does Texas. Mississippi has already adjourned for the year. And this is the state that just took home the Toyota plant. South Carolina and Georgia and Nevada (all growth states with low tax states) will wrap up their sessions by June. The states work. Georgia passed historic tort reform legislation in just 18 days in 2005. They pass their budgets on time. What they don't do is get bogged down in nonsense. If an issue needs special attention, then the Governor can call a special session to deal with it.

One of the best things this state could do is force citizens to form a committee, raise a few million bucks to get a proposal on the ballot to amend the constitution, then work like the dickens to pass it.

And while we're at it, let's repeal term limits. It's creating a monster of greed and ignorance in our Capitol that needs to be killed. Let our senators and representatives seek to serve as long as they want so we build in some institutional expertise and historical perspective. Right now there isn't any, and this is bad for Michigan. It's a fundraising merry-go-round with staff and legislators shaking down lobbyists for meals and money 24-7. It's a scandal waiting to happen. A "we" legislature has turned into a "me" legislature, and the culture has to change.

It's time for townships to go the way of the horse and buggy, too. The majority of states don't have them or need them. Ever try to get your township treasurer on the phone? I have. I have to call her at home. I get her answering machine. Townships provide a level of government service and expense in Michigan that can easily be absorbed by the counties. And we'd save the taxpayers a load of dough in the process. Townships put on great parades and their fire trucks are nifty to look at, but come on, they aren't necessary in the 21st Century.

It's time to consolidate school districts. Roll them into our 57 intermediate school districts for administrative purposes. The Michigan Education Directory lists 549 school districts. We don't need that many. I'm not talking about just closing schools, though there are many that must shut their doors, either because they are failing students or they are financially untenable. I'm talking about closing administrative offices. We don't need 549 superintendents. We don't need all the support staff needed to run 549 school districts, staff that drives up operating costs, pension costs, health care costs and keeps money out of the classroom.

Keep the decision making at the school level with the principal. Let the principals set the policies that are best for their schools. And let the teachers teach.

It's also necessary to reopen all school contracts for possible renegotiation and economic give backs to make our schools solvent. That should be job one before any consideration is given to raising taxes to finance the status quo or forcing local districts to drain cash reserves.

Every industrial sector in our economy has had to make tough economic decisions to remain competitive. The airlines and their employees met the challenge. So have technology companies. The Big Three and the tier-one auto suppliers have been forced to reform or die. It wasn't easy. It required major realignment of wages and benefits, even severe job cuts, but they got it done. We can't expect our schools to continue to suck up tax revenue from hard hit taxpayers without reforming and performing better.

Same scenario for the privileged class of government employees. Again, the private sector should not have to stand alone in making cuts while funding an expensive government that takes more from our wallets than it gives back in service. Taking away cars for judges is playing at the margins. Sweeping concessions on salaries and health costs, especially the enormous legacy costs incurred on behalf of government retirees, must and can occur.

The Mackinac Center reported recently that "despite the budget 'crisis,' state salaries and benefits remain high." State department receptionists receive a total compensation package of almost $51,000 while their private sector equivalent earns just more than $32,000. A State of Michigan employee package stands at $74,381. A private sector worker, according to Mackinac, comes in just under $58,000. When the people who pay the salaries of those who serve them make substantially less something is seriously out of whack.

So, it's time to whack the wages and benefits of Michigan's most privileged class. And adjust the silent and invisible legacy costs accruing at every level of government that will soon threaten to choke the life out of state and local budgets.

Stop forcing people to join a union to get a job. Michigan continues to lose to states like Alabama and Tennessee where workers can secure good-paying jobs with a stable, safe and secure future without the union taking part of their paycheck. Right to Work is a phrase most Michigan politicians would like to avoid, like the crazy uncle in the basement apartment.

But when Tennessee and Alabama continue to move up the wage continuum at a rate that will have them pass Michigan workers in just three years, we would be advised to get our heads out of the sand on this issue. In fact, recent data suggest that if put to a public referendum, enough citizens have begun to question the value of compulsory unions with undemocratic elections that such a proposal could well pass. It should. It must, for Michigan to move aggressively forward.

The current higher education funding debate has also raised legitimate questions on the need to support 15 state funded universities, especially three in the Upper Peninsula. Just as K-12 must adjust to a brand new world, so must our university system. Consolidation of some campuses may be the right answer. But first we need to start asking the question. Can Michigan afford three separate and independent universities, good as they may be, in the U.P.? Should they be consolidated into one school with three campuses?

I support the formation of a citizens' commission similar to the Defense Base Closure and Realignment Commission that performed so admirably a few years back. The recommendations that came from their thoughtful study enabled our country to better allocate our defense dollars without undercutting our preparedness. Let's call it the Michigan University Closure and Realignment Commission and set out to build a higher education model for the 21st Century. Let's put every university under the microscope. If we can objectively evaluate the capacity and need of our numerous military bases in an era of the international war on terror, we can certainly perform a similar study on our higher education system.

Privatizing prisons, ending ineffective adult education programs, even putting under scrutiny the tens of millions of tax dollars spent annually by the Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC) to lure business here should be part of a strategy that will invest in Michigan.

It's wrong to conclude that investing just means adding more dollars, creating more programs, making things bigger. Investing means spending human and financial capital more wisely. Getting a better return.

We need to invest in the right things.

Look, it's like losing weight...you don't invest in Whoppers and chocolate malts to cut the fat. You exercise. You cut the calories. You change your diet.

Making Michigan stronger won't happen by making government bigger. Companies won't invest here. People won't move here or raise their families because we have a great government or because the Governor smiles when she raises your taxes. Businesses will come. Families will grow if they have great opportunities to build something of value. Where they can dream. Where they can have hope.

We can truly reinvent our state to successfully meet the challenges of this competitive world and uncertain century...if we have the will. I'm not holding my breath.