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One Time Fixes: Oh, so THAT'S how we're going to pay for it...By Nick, Section News
24 expansions of government and only 4 limitations. If you want to call them that. When you boil it all down last night the Mackinac Center reports that we heard Jennifer Granholm propose twenty-four expansions of government and only four limitations. Ant those... They were things like "achieve significant savings in our Corrections Department by adopting changes that save money." She claims that at the end of the day these four limitations will represent $200 million in savings. Which covers two-thirds the cost of one of the twenty-four expansions of government, the new Bob Thompson-esque charter schools.
Although that's not how she was planning on paying for that anyways. The morning after the Governor's latest State of the State speech her liberal friends are thrilled, her adoring media is enrapt with her profoundly akward delivery style and everyone else is left looking desperately for the answer to the big question... just how's she going to pay for all of that? The Associated Press offers a bunch of specific answers. Yep, there isn't just one. We're going to borrow against that, refinance this and raid that other thing. Literally, one-time fixes. Didn't we just get through a giant budget mess with pledges that the one-time fixes were over? That it was time for structural change in government? I should be careful or I'll be accused of parsing words. Technically the Governor did, last night, propose structural change in government. Hundreds of millions worth.
All of those are one-time investments that the state won't be able to afford once the money from refinancing the bonds is gone. But Granholm's advisers say the governor is using the money for job-creating proposals such as larger tax credits for cutting-edge businesses that employ more people in Michigan, not just to plug budget holes as in the past...
Those could be valuable stimulants to Michigan's stagnant economy. Michigan's unemployment rate is already the nation's highest, and could climb above 8 percent later this year. Michigan also has the nation's third-highest foreclosure rate.
But Granholm isn't above tapping future dollars to pay for projects she wants to start now. Isn't it interesting that she wants to borrow against future dollars to award tax breaks and incentives to businesses in order to encourage growth? That's not the sort of program you start because you've got cash burning a hole in your pocket. It's the sort of program, apparently, that you use a bit of creative financing cash to fund. And why? What's the expected result? Job growth. That's right, a lower tax burden, the Governor expects, will result in job growth. And guess what new jobs means... go on... RIGHT! More tax revenue. Now if that sort of thing works for a highly targeted $550 million program imagine the good you could do by expanding it to everyone in the State! Read on...
Of course that makes sense so it had no place in this speech or anywhere in the Governor's playbook, for that matter. And at least one person in the MSM seemed to notice. Take Daniel Howes over at the Detroit News. He appears just as dumbfounded as we are.
Her first bold recommendation: "Significantly increase" the advertising of the state to boost tourism and attract possible business investment in the Big Mitten. Her second is to call for "robust incentives" to grow the film industry in Michigan.
Say what? I don't know, man. I don't know. That's what she said. I didn't write the speech. In the end it would be nice, somewhere down the line a decade or two away, for the Governor to at least take some responsibility for the mess she's created and her jarring inability to get us out. Even Kwame Kilpatrick is expected to take some responsibility tonight. The Ivory Tower reports:
The mayor has no plans to quit, aides said Tuesday. In this case stepping aside would be the honorable thing to do. And frankly, it'd probably protect the taxpayers. Though that's never been a big worry for Michigan Democrats.
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One Time Fixes: Oh, so THAT'S how we're going to pay for it... | 2 comments (2 topical, 0 hidden)
One Time Fixes: Oh, so THAT'S how we're going to pay for it... | 2 comments (2 topical, 0 hidden)
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