Jake Davison

This past year was one of breathtaking reforms, painful but unavoidable decisions and fearless leadership by Gov. Rick Snyder. Not since Governor John Engler’s first term (and perhaps never before in Michigan history) has the state’s chief executive put policy so far ahead of politics.

It paid off in time for Engler to be re-elected by a landslide in 1994, but whether Gov. Snyder’s approval ratings rebound in time for his reelection in November 2014 remains to be seen.

Quotes from the governor seem to indicate that 2012 might be a different year – that the large cuts, overdue reforms and special interest ox-goring may be succeeded by a year of “management” and preparing to maintain Republican majorities in the House and Senate. This would be a tragic waste of momentum. If anything, 2012 needs to continue the pace of 2011. I recommend the following reforms be bravely led (Democrats would say “jammed” or “forced”) through the Legislature to the governor’s desk for his signature:

Further cap welfare benefits from 48 months to 42 months. Seriously – four years of welfare is OK but 3.5 years is cruel? This will save money and help save welfare recipients from the narcotic of dependency.

Follow up on the lifting of the arbitrary charter school cap by exempting charter schools from property taxes. Charter schools are public schools too. Traditional public schools don’t pay property taxes. Why should charters?

Eliminate legislators’ $10,800 a year “expenses” slush fund. All state senators and state representatives are paid $79,000 per year plus benefits. They are also reimbursed for mileage to and from Lansing and to junkets (excuse me, I mean policy and educational forums). On top of these expenses, they get a blank check for $900 a month for unnamed and unaccounted for expenses. It’s really just more salary. While this would only save $1.6 million per year, it is the only morally correct thing to do and would be politically popular to boot.

Make Michigan a Right To Work state. Republicans can let seven of their members wimp out on this vote in the House and let seven Senators do the same. What are the union bosses going to do, try as hard as they possibly can to beat Republicans? That’s guaranteed already.

Might these reforms result in the loss of both houses of the legislature to the Democrats? Certainly not – the State Senate is not up until November 2014 (148 weeks from today). If the reforms have not proved themselves politically successfully by then, than fiscal conservatism is wrong and statism is right.

Might Republicans lose the House in the elections just 10 months from now, which would require a loss of nine districts? Certainly, the 16-seat majority will be diminished, but consider the following: Republicans just redistricted all 110 house seats as much in their favor as mathematically possible. Michigan native Mitt Romney can’t possibly lose Michigan to President Obama by more than a few percentage points (there will be no McCain 2008 or Dole 1996 style wipeouts); and Democrats can’t successfully argue that there isn’t enough welfare, taxes or regulations at the state level with anyone but their own choir.

© 2012 North Star Writers Group

Jake Davison is a North Star Writers Group columnist and President of Advantage Associates, a Michigan-based campaign consulting and public relations firm. Jake can be reached at jd@youradvantage.org.