I moved back to Michigan last fall bucking a trend that started when the auto industry went into a big decline after the salad days of the 90’s .com boom in 2000. The economic problems facing Michigan are well understood but the solutions are much more difficult. There are a lot of people who want to blame it all on the Governor Jennifer Granholm and while there is a lot of room for criticism the facts are that there is little she or any Governor can do to jump start an economy that is wholly and completely beholden to the domestic auto industry which is dead, dead, dead.
She has decided, for better or worse to hold the line on things like education and services over cutting taxes and while you can argue all you want about whether or not the tax rate in MI is too high (it is in the top 20% per capita). The fact is you could cut state taxes in half and it still would not stem the tide of job losses in Michigan.
Frankly what Michigan needs is a way to attract top level entrepreneurial talent to Michigan. We need a plan that will make the state attractive to a highly imaginative, wealthy, and talented pool of individuals who can broaden the economy and bring innovation to the state. Michigan needs a way to make the state a magnet to the kind of people with the creativity to make Michigan an attractive place to live for the movers and shakers of the new millennia. Frankly there is one idea that will do just that.
With a stroke the pen the people of Michigan could make this state just such a place. Overnight, Michigan will be able to boast that we have something that no other state can offer and will attract wealthy and creative individuals in droves. Magically Michigan will be transformed by a population of hard working, driven, individuals who can spruce up this state like no other single group of people can. And what is this magic bullet?
What is this plan that is so simple and will cost the tax payers of Michigan not one thin dime out of their wallet? What could the State of Michigan do that would make it a Mecca for a the kind of people that have proven over and over again that they can turn decay and blight into real estate gold?
Hear hear!
Homophobia is bad for business, as well as unAmerican.
Yeah, right. I think most of the others states have been cutting taxes to attract business and our governor, and I will admit to voting for her and that nobody else could do any better at this time, is wanting to raise taxes. First off, when you raise taxes, that scares away business, lowering them and cutting the red tape helps it. I don’t think gay marriage either way will matter one bit. I have to believe gays like less taxes as much as normal people. On top of that, NAFTA, GATT and the other screw ourselves in the end for quick profits trade treaties haven’t helped our state in the least. I think John Engler left the state in a mess and nobody else could do any better than Granholm on this right now. My only beef with her is on wanting to raise taxes. To attract business that just doesn’t make sense to me.
Excuse me…
How would passing a constitutional amendment that would legalize gay marriage help Michigan’s economy ?????
Michigan is broke and in the pits. Personally, I see no fix in the short term, maybe long term of 20 to 50 years down the road.
Education is also a bust, no matter how much money you throw into the pot, the graduates will just go to another state to work and live, after all what is left in Michigan for gainfull employment?
How would passing a constitutional amendment that would legalize gay marriage help Michigan’s economy ?????
By attracting wealthy, smart people. Look at Ferndale.
I explained it in the post, reread, but really even if it didn’t help it wouldn’t hurt anything and we would look enlightened compared to the other 49 states
Isn’t that kind of stereotyping people, Rick? I thought you liberals diddn’t do that and frowned on those who do.
Tom,
No it’s called demographics, every business on the face of the planet does it.
Tom Sawyer wrote:
“I have to believe gays like less taxes as much as normal people.”
and then he wrote:
“Isn’t that kind of stereotyping people, Rick?”
Although I’m happily hetero, I believe that while gays are statistically in the minority, their orientation is as normal for them as mine is for me and yours is for you.
BTW, weren’t you kind of stereotyping people, TS?
Rick, your idea has merit. At the least, the state could benefit from providing for domestic partnerships that confer the same legal rights and benefits for gays and lesbian couples that marriage per se confers on male-female couples.
However, I don’t think doing this would necessarily revitalize Michigan’s economy, at least not for quite some time.
I’ve long believed this country could produce and profitably sell vehicles especially conceived and designed for foreign consumers, even those in emerging Third-World countries.
This would require sending auto designers, engineers and marketing people to other countries, to live, work and learn enough about the locals to be able to design the kind of vehicles they need, want and can afford.
Vehicle design and manufacturing is a U.S. strength. I can’t fathom why people in government think it’s better to throw in the towel than adapt and compete in an arena where we have so much experience, knowhow and established infrastructure.
I can understand why business types, including investors, shy away. As always, the prefer the quick, sure bucks to be made from exploiting foreign labor and the air, land and water in places with few or no environmental regulations. They talk big about competition, but from what I’ve seen going back decades, what they do is avoid it whenever and wherever they possibly can.
That, of course, is wrong. It’s hurting Michigan and most of the rest of our country.
That would actually work. I wish my state would do that.
Unfortunately Kansas just got back on the right side of evolution, so I think being so progressive as to grant ALL Kansans their rights is still a long way off.
SW,
Yeah the US auto makers simply don’t want to assume the risk that becoming competitive would require, so much of the myth of corporations as the vanguard of innovation. The fact is that Michigan is so much of a one horse town economically that is very likely no real good solution. I do now one thing though, state income tax burdens range from about 9% on the low end to 12 % on the high end, Michigan is in the middle at about 10%. There is no meaningful tax cut that would make much difference to businesses one way or another.
I have lived in three other states and South Carolina while the total tax burden is lower it has a higher income and personal property tax (read auto & boat tax). Also most low tax states are shit holes.
Sorry, SK, but no I was not stereotyping. I am not defined by my sexuality as gays tend to do. Since they are in the minority as you say, then no their behavior or preference is not normal, the majority’s is. That being said, I do not care if they have civil unions. I really do not see where gay marriage would help the economy at all. Do they really buy or contribute to the economy any more than anybody else? Rick, while you say a tax cut doesn’t help matters any, other states have been lowering their’s to get business there. Ours is the only one, probably outside of New York and California that wants to raise our taxes. In these times, that is pretty stupid. I would either get a part-time state legislature or combine districts and cut the representation in half as well as cutting other government areas.
Tom,
Which states are “lowering their taxes”? I lived in SC where the taxes are half of what they are hear and they have about the same unemployment rate. Mississippi is the lowest in the nation and that state is a shit hole. Taxes were the same or higher in the 80’s and business was booming. Engler cut taxes to what they are now and businesses still are leaving.
The reason they are leaving is not the tax rate, it’s the dying US auto industry, the tax rate which is not really all that high compared to other states.
I really do not see where gay marriage would help the economy at all.
I explained why in the post, you either buy the argument or you don’t.
TS, I’m sure that when nearly all Americans accept gays and lesbians without making assumptions or judgments about their sexual orientation, you’ll no longer get the impression gays and lesbians are defined by their sexuality.
It’s a little like taking a soldier out of a combat zone. When there’s no longer lead flying and people dying around him, he’ll eventually stop falling to the ground or crouching behind cover when there’s a sudden loud noise.
As for normality, relatively small percentages of the population have hazel eyes or red hair. You’re not going to tell me that makes people who have hazel eyes or red hair abnormal, are you?
Obviously, having red hair and hazel eyes is normal for some people. Likewise, developing a romantic desire for someone of their own gender and orientation is normal for some people.
This is pretty simple, basic stuff. Just use your head and common sense.
Personally, I am still very confused as to why Rick thinks that passing an amendment allowing gay marriages would help Michigan’s economy. I have read and re-read his original posting and I see no data which supports this claim other than cultural enlightenment or an excess of disposable cash to burn.
We have a serious economic problem here in Michigan. We have a state legislature which abolished the Small Business Tax but yet did not replace the funds. What kind of stupidity is this? Of course business was taken care of let the people worry about where the funds come from. Last week I received my property tax assessment from the county, my taxable value increased and my property taxes went up but yet my assessed value(SEV) decreased. Let me understand this, the value(SEV) of my house decreased but my taxable value increased. How very strange!!!
I don’t know what the answers are and unfortunately neither does anyone else, it’s all going to be a trial and error to see which works best.
BUT
I will say this much, the other day I was listening to the news and the commentator/reporter asked, what is the biggest threat to our economy? That’s when the lighting bolt hit me square in the face.
The lawmakers and politicians are the biggest threats to the economy.
I gotta admit, I’m not getting the connection either. I never really thought that there was a rich, oppressed, and gay demographic just waiting for the chance to express itself. The state might make more money by charging people (a la Pay Per View) to watch them mix with the militia types. Or, I don’t know, maybe the dominant college football team there could win a big game every once in a while….
Well it is true that a gay marriage amendment alone without any other policy change would do the trick and my claims of “magic bullet†status are more then a bit overstated the idea is that Michigan currently has a problem attracting talented and innovative individuals due the poor economic climate due mainly to the death of it’s only industry; automobiles. States like Mississippi have the very same problem except for the fact that it never had an industry to die on it in the first place.By becoming the only state in the union to guarantee and protect the rights of homosexual individuals to marry, establish partnerships that can secure them benefits, gay individuals will view Michigan as a place where they would, if all other things are equal, relocate to in order to take advantage gay friendly social environment in much the same way that black individuals see cities like Atlanta, Washington and Detroit as desirable places for them to live because of the social advantages of living in a cities where people like them are in the majority.
With the guarantee of full gay relationships being guaranteed full and equal status with those of hetero relationships gays will start to relocate to Michigan. Gays as a demographic group are more successful, more entrepreneurial, and wealthier then the population at large and will have a transforming effect first on the individual communities they start to inhabit.
Ferndale is a great example of how this works, the place was a shit hole no matter what they tried to do and it is now thriving because gays have moved in and gentrified the town. Now property values are on the rise, the area is booming and in many ways it is becoming what Royal Oak was before it got taken over by the corporacracy.
Besides even if it didn’t do any good it wouldn’t really hurt anyone.
Jim as for the property tax thing that easy to understand but harder to explain. It has to do with the fact that property tax rates in Michigan are capped at two threshold levels at 3.5 and 5 %. When homes were increasing in value at rates faster then those numbers the assessments could not go any higher, now that the values are declining they are not falling as fast as they were going up so it will take a few years to catch up. I thought the same thing as you did when I saw the assessment and I was going to fight it but I found out by running a search thought a real estate friend that even though the values on our condo were going down the assessment was still about 15% lower then the other comparables in our association. If you have two or three houses in your area that have sold for less then the value of your home then it would be simple to challenge the assessment. My guess is that your home would appraise for more then your assessment even though the value has dropped a bit over the last year. Remember that if people in your area a re holding rather then selling then the appraisal value is not going to change all that much.
I might suck but it’s hardly unfair.
The state might make more money by charging people (a la Pay Per View) to watch them mix with the militia types.
Well that is spot on…
I think the warmer weather climates have something to do with that. In the end, i think it comes down to being overtaxed in this state.
i think it comes down to being overtaxed in this state.
I prefer data to what you might think. The data is that Michigan has a much lower income tax rate compared to other states and over all the total mean tax rate falls in the middle of the pack. Clearly you have little idea of what your talking about if you don’t know this. If you want to do some reserch then please post a link, not what you think because what you think is clearly wrong and ill informed.
Also the lowest tax state in the union is Mississippi and they have a shot hole for an economy, one of the few states worst then MI. The problems of the Michigan economy are not taxes, it’s that we are wholly dependent on the Auto industry and manufacturing, any solution that doesn’t address that specifically is simply spinning your wheels.
So, what data did you find that purports to say that if we had gay marriage in the state then the economy would be helped? Sounds like what you think to me, as well.
Tom,
The proposal was a bit on the tongue and cheek side, sorry you were so confused. But if you want data go to any place in the US with a large collection of gay people and you will find the most expensive property values in the country. Hell just look at what they did with Frendale.
but good job on changing the subject so that you didn’t ahev to offer any , you know proof of your statement on MI taxes.
Rick, that wasn’t my intention to change the subject. I just didn’t see how gay marriage in the state would help the economy.
Love it! So many gay people either remain childless or make a family late in life that their expendable income is cheerfully and substantially larger than most breeder’s fun money. Not to pidgeon hole gay people, but I see they types of things that towns with lots of them have: galleries, architectural firms, fashion houses, antique shops. I see amazing bars and restraunts. I hate to steryotype, but really, from a gal who works in the art community: gay people are such strong contributiing forces to our big, beautiful American culture. And for anyone who cannot imagine how money can be made from the cultural scene: try getting out of suberbia every once and a while. There is a whole world of thriving people who don’t do the 9-5 grind or corporate whoredom. And lots of them are beautiful queers.
Also: glad you are back! I was cleaning up my bookmarks when I noticed that you were blogging again after all.