MACKINAC ISLAND – Several of the proposals Governor Jennifer Granholm has made in the past three years have bogged down in the Legislature, so Friday she asked members of the Detroit Regional Chamber to help her get those issues moving. In one case she offered a direct payback for that help.
Though she did not specify how much would be saved, Granholm told those gathered for the Chamber’s Mackinac Policy Conference that changes to the state’s corrections policies could save money that could be used to offset the surcharge on the Michigan Business Tax.
But she also asked the business community to get behind her small high schools initiative and the energy package that passed the House.
The key focus of all of the state’s efforts have to be on the economy, Granholm said to a packed house at the Grand Hotel.
“We all know what the challenges of Michigan are: until March we lost 330,000 manufacturing jobs; it’s going to get to 400,000 by end of this year,” Granholm said. “It’s because our great Big Three has lost market share.”
To adjust to that change in the economy, the state has to change how it operates, she said. Part of that is trying to reduce some areas of significant growth, like Corrections.
Granholm did not outline specifically what she plans, but she said stands by the proposals she made last year and is looking to update them based on work being done in the state by the Council of State Governments.
“I am not interested and will not allow violent criminals to be released into our communities,” she said. “However, there are people in prison who can be safely released.”
Making those changes could save “hundreds of millions of dollars,” she said.
The proposal would split the savings from those sentencing reforms between the surcharge, higher education and law enforcement.
While she acknowledged the need for additional changes to state operations, Granholm took issue with some assertions that had been made that recent budget discussions had not resulted in any reforms.
But she said there is also some need to add state spending. “We need to add some people to make sure that children are protected,” she said, referring to her proposal to add caseworkers in the Department of Human Services.
On the other end of the budget issue, she said, is adding jobs. “We have to invest in sectors that really foster that innovation,” she said. “We have to create the workers, create the jobs, make sure the jobs are the ones that are going to keep these young people here.”
She argued that alternative energy is one sector that will attract and hold young people in the state and she called on the group to urge movement on the House energy package, particularly on the renewable portfolio standard, an effort the Chamber has already joined. “Without that we are completely missing the boat as a state,” she said repeating the argument that companies making wind turbines and other equipment will not move to the state without some guarantee of a market.
She said Sweden has created some 400,000 jobs in the sector in recent years. “And how many jobs have we lost?” she said.
The package is currently in the Senate where it has run into Republican concerns about the need for an RPS and its structure, as well as related programs that would allow the utilities to charge for energy efficiency programs and restructuring of the industry to limit choice.
FILM CREDIT: But the RPS was not the only economic development issue Granholm is following. She said the film industry is also important to both building the state economy and attracting young people.
Recently approved tax credits for the industry will cost state tax dollars, but she said officials knew that going in. “Lets just relax everybody,” she said to those calling for changes to those credits. “Let’s just see how it goes.”
AIRPORT FUNDS: Granholm told reporters after her presentation that the Legislature needs to move quickly on bills to allocate federal airport funding. She said the state needs to meet the deadline for allocating the grants so the money is not lost.
“I’ll sign whatever comes to my desk, but we clearly have a deadline on the airport dollars and that has to be passed immediately,” she said, adding that the university projects that House Democrats have been pushing, while they would create jobs, can be addressed as part of target setting.
The Senate is insisting the state cannot afford the university and community college projects, while the House is holding out for a more complete capital outlay program that includes the projects, and which they argue will provide a stimulus for the state’s economy this summer.
SMOKING BAN: Granholm said she would support either of the measures currently in play to ban smoking in public places. She argued the ban would actually be another way to attract and keep young professionals.
“We need to be ahead of the game in sending a message about people’s health,” she said.
The major difference is the Senate version which bans smoking in all public places, and the House version which carves out exemptions for the three Detroit casinos and cigar bars.
EDUCATION: She also asked the business community to get behind her 21st Century Schools Fund, which uses former payments to non-Durant schools to cover grants to design or build smaller high schools to replace current schools that are struggling.
“Replace those large impersonal high schools that fail with small personal high schools that work,” she said, adding that the six middle colleges around the state are examples of what the program would create.
She said the program is even more attractive because, as proposed, it would not mean additional taxes or even additional spending over the current year budget.
The Senate had shifted the funds to a general infrastructure improvement fund available to more districts, but since the most recent Revenue Estimating Conference the funds have been discussed as a way to fill the hole in the School Aid Fund.
Granholm was not the only leader Friday to ask attendees for school funding. Detroit Public Schools Superintendent Connie Calloway asked an earlier session to support at least one new high school in the district.
“I would like for all of us at Mackinac to invest in Osborn Community,” Calloway said, adding the neighborhood has the highest concentration of school aid children in the state and some of the oldest buildings in the district. “These are buildings we would not go to school in. We cannot bring them up to date.”
The high school in the community is also one of five the district is restructuring for next school year to try to bring up test scores she said.
Granholm said she would not be willing to consider proposals that would back off from the state’s current graduation requirements. “All students now must meet these tough new graduation requirements,” she said. “That expectation must be maintained.”
WORKER TRAINING: The No Worker Left Behind Program, which pays college tuition for displaced workers seeking degrees in certain high-demand fields, also has to at least be maintained, Granholm said. “That flipping of workforce development on its head to focus on the demands of the employer is critical,” she said. “We want people to get degrees in something that we need.”
The Senate has stripped $40 million in general funds from the program that the governor had recommended.
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