A lot of people are uneasy about Governor Rick Snyder’s proposal to cut aid to education at all levels in order to balance the budget and give business a huge tax break. Even some of those in favor of cutting business taxes have problems with this.
They reason that no matter what happens, there aren’t going to be any jobs in the future for unskilled, undereducated workers -- and certainly not any good-paying ones. Our young adults are undereducated as it is, and cutting education won’t help.
So yesterday, we were alerted that the Michigan Senate Democrats were going to offer an alternate proposal. I was very interested to see what it would be. And frankly, I was hoping it would be an alternative I could support.
That’s because I am convinced that better education and training, more than anything else, is the key to Michigan’s future.
Well, I couldn’t have been more disappointed in the Democrats -- or in Senate Minority Leader Gretchen Whitmer, a charismatic and intelligent figure who may be their best hope for the future.
The minority leader called for a state constitutional amendment that would prevent the governor from taking money out of the school aid fund in the future. In practical terms, this is the equivalent of my calling for an amendment requiring it to be seventy degrees so I don’t freeze when I walk the dog in the morning.
First of all, this does nothing to address this year’s problems. Even if the legislature thought this was a good idea, they’d have to agree to put it on a statewide ballot so people could vote on it.
That wouldn’t happen until long after this budget has been passed. But the legislature isn’t going to do any such thing. Republicans control both chambers. Democrats are especially weak in the Senate, where Gretchen Whitmer’s party has less than a third of the seats, and by themselves are powerless to do anything.
That’s not the worst part of her proposal, however. When she presented it to the media yesterday, she was asked this sensible question: If her proposal became law, how would Democrats then propose to fill the resulting deficit hole in the general fund?
The Senate minority leader refused to offer an answer -- other than to say the tax code should be “re-examined.”
This is precisely what has been wrong with Michigan government for the past decade, and what got the Democrats tossed out of office last fall. This is also why Governor Snyder’s plan is likely to be enacted. The governor has made a comprehensive proposal for changing the way things are done.
His numbers add up.
His critics are whining about many parts of his proposal. But they have yet to propose an alternative. That’s not because there aren’t any. It’s because any alternative involves raising taxes.
And they don’t have the guts to do that. Incredible as it might seem, nobody in a leadership position in the Democratic Party seems willing to argue that the well-off should pay more, so the have-nots won’t have to suffer. That’s why Governor Snyder is winning.
You can’t fight something with nothing. And so far, the alternative the minority party is offering is precisely that.
