Revenge of the Nerd

Last night I posted on Facebook my top six initiatives as proposed by Governor Rick Snyder in his first State of the State speech.  The are; 1) Incentivize revenue sharing to local municipalities based on best-management practices, 2) End the process, and do not adopt new ergonomic rules, 3) Revise Public Act 72 to speed the recovery of cities in financial distress, 4) End the practice of retail establishments pricing each item individually, 5) Revise and improve the implementation of the Michigan Agriculture Environmental Assurance Program (MAEAP), and 6) Fully fund the Pure Michigan ad campaign.  After reading it this morning it occurred to me that these things, while good for the state in general, might not sound so bold to someone outside of Michigan, or to others expecting to hear the reverberations of the populace rhetoric from the fall campaigns.  It also occurred to me that my choices for the top six initiatives might only be appreciated by a fellow policy nerd.  Nevertheless I can assure you that these are important measures, with short and long-term implications, and yes in addition to these, the governor did begin the conversation of implementing new and radical change for Michigan.

As a newly minted county commissioner, I applaud the governor's efforts to try and incentivize (and therefore modernize) our state's revenue sharing plan.  For most municipalities across Michigan, struggling with increasing costs and declining tax revenues, the word on the street was that revenue sharing would be one of the first expenditure items to be eliminated from the state budget.  Sadly, the idea of having to adopt best-practices at the local level in order to obtain precious funds from the state, may be, for some, more scary than an outright cut.  Unfortunately, and much to my chagrin, I know it will be difficult for a majority of the Saginaw County Board of Commissioners.

Over the course of the last few years under the Granholm administration, eager bureaucrats intent on slowing the wheels of commerce have been trying to write and adopt new rules for ergonomics in the workplace.  The rules they had been fashioning, if adopted, would have cost millions for businesses to comply, further eroding our state's abilities to retain and attract new business.

Michigan is one of just two states that still require every item on a store shelf to be individually labeled with a price tag.  Given bar coding and modern technology, this relic from the past is simply archaic.  While it may mean a loss of some jobs, the money it will save in the end could open the door for more and better jobs.

Under the original construct of the Michigan Agriculture Environmental Assurance Program, designated farms were given a pass from over zealous environmental regulators.  The designation stipulated and fortified the position that the bearer was perhaps a better steward of the land being farmed, than the Lansing bureaucrats who claimed to know better.  Once again, over the course of the last decade, Granholm's environuts ran roughshod over Michigan's agriculture community.

While the above items caught my initial attention, I am also very excited by the rest of the governor's agenda.  I believe his "Dashboard", comprised of important and relevant data points, will prove to be an integral component in measuring our state's (and his) progress on our race back to prosperity.  A refocused Michigan Economic Development Corporation, with a broader view and egalitarian perspective, should serve our state well in the coming years.  The establishment of a two-year budget, to replace the parochial and outdated annual budgets of the past, and to deliver such by the end of May, fully four or five months earlier than in previous years, should enable our lawmakers to be more circumspect in deciding how to spend our money.  Lastly, the elimination of the Michigan Business Tax and replacement with a flat 6% corporate income tax.

While some of us conservatives may have felt gypped that we didn't get the tough talk about reigning in public employee compensation and benefits, right-to-work, or an end to redistributive practices and policies, I am confident that some of that will appear in the governor's budget proposals, as well as future  messages to the legislature as mentioned in his speech.  All in all, I think it was a great start for Governor Snyder, and I look forward to doing my part in helping him to realize our Michigan dream.