Ah. Life was so much simpler back in the day when the Michigan economy revolved around growing trees; then chopping them down and then growing them again. In the logging business there was never a debate about how the trees were polluting the air. They actually made it healthier.
Then along came a man named Ford who changed everything in the economy. Some for the better. Some not so much.
As the state’s welfare became more and more linked to the auto industry, the state government was the beneficiary of that in good times. But all you have to recall is 2008 when then Gov. Jennifer Granholm and the legislature faced a huge recession, linked to the autos being on the ropes. And there in a nutshell was the seemingly never ending roller coaster ride for state officials.
To remove some of the peaks and valleys, there was a unified call to diversify the state’s economy. The tourism and farming sector helped but those were often dependent on another uncontrollable nemesis ... the weather. (Think this spring that never was.)
Every modern day governor has been chief executive and chief job hunter at the same time in hard ball competition with other states that wanted new jobs too. They also tried to hold fast to the jobs already in the state. (Michigan just lost 400 auto jobs to another state.)
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s worse nightmare on this front occurred a couple of years ago when she woke up to headlines that Mr. Ford’s company had stiffed its home state by picking Kentucky and Tennessee for two new state of the art battery plants. The shock waves were palpable in this town as she and the GOP legislature moved quickly to beef up the state’s job hunting chops. The centerpiece was offering more cash/tax incentives to lure business here.
But then a funny thing happened that had its roots in the previous Rick Snyder administration. The GOP businessman/ governor in training came into office firmly opposed to hunting jobs. His plan was to “garden” for jobs by tilting the soil here to keep the jobs we already had and he was content to let the other states get in a bidding war. That is until years later when he finally conceded, without fanfare, that Michigan need to toss around some cash to compete with Ohio, Indiana and a host of other adversaries in the job arena.
But out of that came the current notion that those incentives amount to “corporate welfare” and surprisingly conservative Republicans, who used to be so pro business that the chambers of commerce got most of what they wanted, are now joined by a handful of progressive Democrats who don’t much like that welfare program either.
House GOP Speaker Matt Hall is fighting to kill some of the very programs the governor needs to continue her quest for jobs. He wants to swipe those bucks and put them into roads. She does not.
Entering the debate is former House GOP Speaker Jase Bolger who labored with Gov. Snyder back in the day and he wholeheartedly concurs that this corporate welfare needs to be the last thing a state does to attract work here.
“It’s the icing on the cake,” he argues. The cake, he explains, is a state that has plenty of cheap energy, a skilled non-aging workforce, a living experience that will attract younger workers and keep them here. He wants to return to Right to Work which the unions around here are loathed to try again. Plus you need a solid K-12 and higher ed system that grinds out job ready applicants.
Gov. Whitmer warns that placing the lure of cash savings last on the list amounts to unilateral disarmament which is an open invitation for other states to come here and poach what jobs we have left.
So while she and the GOP house try to write a new state budget with the uncertainty of what the Trump folks will do to federal aid coming here, they must resolve this decades old problem created by Henry Ford. That is how to create an economy that benefits from the auto sector but does not collapse when it goes in the tank. Let’s just say they aren’t there yet.
