State of the State: Gov. Jennifer Granholm says no more education cuts, vows to restore merit scholarships
In her eighth and final State of the State address, Gov. Jennifer Granholm delivered a farewell to Michigan's manufacturing-based economy and said an educated workforce is the future.
"We cannot turn back," she said. "Diversifying our economy, educating our people, and protecting them along the way - this is the path forward."
The governor said she was drawing the line on further education cuts this year. She also promised to restore a popular Michigan Promise scholarship program, as part of her proposed state budget plan for fiscal year 2011 that she will unveil on Feb. 11.
Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm delivers her State of the State address to a joint session of the Legislature Wednesday in Lansing.
AP Photo | Al Goldis
Granholm, who can't run for re-election in 2010 due to term limits, delivered the agenda for her last year in office Wednesday before a joint session of the Michigan Senate and House of Representatives in Lansing. She did not give many specifics on how her budget plan will address a $1.6 billion deficit the state is facing.
During the hour-long address, she briefly touched on streamlining the government by retiring 46,000 senior state workers and teachers, raising pension and health care costs to those who remain and eliminating lifetime healthcare benefits for lawmakers. Those goals are part of a 29-part reform plan she revealed in January that she said would save $450 million annually.
Seventy eight percent of auto industry jobs disappeared in the last decade, she said, contributing to the loss of a million Michigan jobs.
"Our world has changed utterly," she said. "The old Michigan economy is gone. Anyone who believed that Michigan would naturally rebound without making deep and lasting change had a rendezvous with reality in 2009."
Granholm took her audience on a verbal tour of economic development success stories in the state, mentioning Google in Ann Arbor and A123 Systems - the winner of $249 million in federal energy grants to develop technology with connections to the University of Michigan - among others statewide.
Initiatives that she said would help take Michigan from "the rust belt to the green belt," included:
- Investing in tourism and the Pure Michigan ad campaign.Â
- Coming up with state funds for a federal matching program for roads, which she said would created 10,000 jobs.Â
- Investing in education by restoring the merit-based Michigan Promise Scholarship, which provided up to $4,000 for college until it was slashed to save $140 million this fiscal year. She said the focus would be on keeping graduates in Michigan. She said she will draw the line against any more education cuts in the year ahead, but gave no details.Â
- Campaigning for federal funds for a number of projects, including Project Phoenix, a project to give abandoned auto factories "a new life," and funds to connect the entire state of Michigan to wireless Internet.Â
- Spurring small business development by investing in small business incubators via the Michigan Economic Development Corporation. • Tax credits for venture capitalists.Â
- The opening of 10 new learning labs in Detroit for No Worker Left Behind, a Granholm initiative aimed at providing worker retraining and money for two years for college for those who qualify.
Stu Dowty, chairman of the Washtenaw County Democratic Party, said he questions in general the political impact of these types of speeches, but said it gave the governor an opportunity to set the tone for the year.
"It was basically an upbeat message that 'We can do this,' Dowty said. "And she gave us a view of what kinds of things people are doing, and what can be done. In that sense, it's to her credit, that instead of coming in and complaining, she used the opportunity to try and put the light on something positive in terms of building a new economy, something different."
Republican gubernatorial contender and Ann Arbor venture capitalist Rick Snyder agreed Granholm's speech was upbeat, but said it lacked a realistic plan of action. Snyder, who was at the Capitol to hear the address, said the governor talked about a number of companies brought into the state due to tax incentives, but she didn't mention that those incentives cost money.
"We should be using fewer incentives and fixing our tax system so we're truly competitive," Snyder said. "She's on the right topic but took the opposite approach to the economic reality and looking at the solution."
More State of the State coverage:
- Detroit Free Press: Granholm: Let's leapfrog state's factory economy
- Detroit Free Press: Full text of Granholm's State of the State speech
- Detroit News: Column - Granholm finally shows her muscle
- Michigan Messenger: Granholm’s State of the State Speech
- Crain's Detroit Business: Granholm targets entrepreneurship, small-business financing as priorities for final year in office during State of the State address
Juliana Keeping covers higher education for AnnArbor.com. Reach her at julianakeeping@annarbor.com or 734-623-2528. Follow Juliana Keeping on Twitter
Comments
The Grinch
Sun, Feb 7, 2010 : 10:23 p.m.
stunshif: Glad you recognize that this began 10 years ago when... wait for it... here it comes.... ENGLER was in office!!!! And for all your bloviating and namecalling (the last refuge of a scoundrel--you call me an ostrich here, a racist on another strand) you've not offerred one FACT to support a contention that the state's economic condition is due to the state's policies, whenever they were enacted, much less those of Granholm. For your poor employees sakes, I hope you run your business with more logic than you have displayed in these discussions.
stunhsif
Thu, Feb 4, 2010 : 10:47 p.m.
@TheGrinch, moving forward we will call you "OstrichMan" as you have your head stuck in the sand. Your wonderful Gov. Jenny stated that we have lost one million jobs(which for once she tells the truth) and you dismiss this as "just a lot of ignorant smoke being blown here". I demand you apoligize to the ONE million folks that have lost their jobs in Michigan the past ten years. What on earth do you do for a living to be so insulated and so intolerant? I guess your memory goes back four years when Jenny told us to "wait a bit and we will be blown away"????
TruBlue
Thu, Feb 4, 2010 : 8:07 p.m.
Good riddance! Now maybe we can get someone in office you knows how to run a business.
Buzz
Thu, Feb 4, 2010 : 6:52 p.m.
Come on folks....Look a the bright side. It was her LAST State of the State speech.
Jon Saalberg
Thu, Feb 4, 2010 : 5:10 p.m.
Granholm inherited Engler's disastrous tax policies, which have decimated the states revenue base. The carmakers, last time I checked weren't run by Granholm, so the disappearance of thousands of automotive jobs can be laid at the feet of the CEOs (all departed and well-paid) who made the poor product planning decisions. The national economic downturn - yes, I suppose the GOP would like to blame her for that as well, though I think Bush and his foolish economic policies are at fault. Flat taxes are inherently unfair, disproportionately affecting lower income families. Fortunately, Michigan has resisted such foolish policies, as as our federal government.
treetowncartel
Thu, Feb 4, 2010 : 4:03 p.m.
The last two Governors have been atrocious. I don't see any cream rising to the top in this next election either.
Indicat
Thu, Feb 4, 2010 : 12:43 p.m.
When asked by WXYZ's Robbie Timmons if she would stay in Michigan after her term ended, Jennifer replied, "I don't want to think about that yet." A nice way of saying she's out of here now that there is nothing left in Michigan!
Technojunkie
Thu, Feb 4, 2010 : 10:50 a.m.
The problem with Michigan business taxes is the amount of paperwork as much or more than the amount of the bill. The MBT is an abomination. Pass the Fair Tax or just roll everything into a flat business income tax like gubernatorial candidate Rick Snyder is proposing. Either would be better than what we have now.
Alan Benard
Thu, Feb 4, 2010 : 9:58 a.m.
As a former self-identified Democrat, I couldn't care less what this failure of a governor has to say. She has consistently failed to bring about any positive change in her jurisdiction. I have come to the realization that rewarding poor performance with my vote only encourages politicians like Grandholm -- and President Obama -- to offer progressive voters promises on which they never intend to deliver. I used to vote Democratic -- if for no other reason -- to attempt to hold the ground already gained in civil rights, women's rights to control over their own bodies, and policies which would promote a more economically just society. The health-care reform debacle, along with the desperately poor governance by the party here in Michigan, have convinced me that Democratic leaders not share these values. I used to ask people to not waste their vote on a third party. Now I say, if you are going to waste your vote, do it with a clear conscience, rather than encouraging the Democratic Party.
KJMClark
Thu, Feb 4, 2010 : 9:08 a.m.
A2D2 - Ouch! That hurt my head. I think you meant Ricardo Montalban, but that's not right, the quote is from either Fernando Lamas, or more popularly, "Fernando", Billy Crystal's impersonation of Lamas. Grinch - no fair asking them to provide evidence! This is the internet - it's all faith-based! The Tax Foundation ranks Michigan 27th in the nation for combined state/local tax burden (http://www.taxfoundation.org/files/sr163.pdf). The top 5 tax burden states are all coastal states. And they say we have lower corporate taxes than most of them (http://www.taxfoundation.org/publications/show/22917.html). Doesn't look like taxes have that much to do with it. Concerned - "Seventy eight percent of auto industry jobs disappeared in the last decade" - that's some power to protect members' jobs. I'm sure that makes politicians quake in their shoes. The renminbi is a much better explanation. Heck, even our battle-ship gray winter skies are a better explanation.
Top Cat
Thu, Feb 4, 2010 : 9:03 a.m.
The Granholm legacy is eight years of denial, missed opportunity and blind support for the constituencies that feed at the public trough. Our children leave the state because there are no jobs here.
Do not taunt Happy Fun Ball
Thu, Feb 4, 2010 : 8:05 a.m.
Jenny mentioned that ~1 million jobs are gone - she then yelped and gushed about "new businesses" - bought and paid for by TAX CUTS no less - coming into Michigan. But the job totals she stated added up to about 15,000? or so. So Michigan is short by about 985,000 jobs. The equivalent tax receipts to the state are gone and won't be back soon. Lansing must cut down their SPENDING an equal amount. And not just this year but for the next 5 - 10 years.
The Grinch
Thu, Feb 4, 2010 : 7:22 a.m.
How, exactly, did the state's business policies lead to the departure of Pall and/or of Pfizer? Proof, please. And just saying "taxes" does not count. Statements and/or documentary evidence from the companies are the only things that can begin to get at these companies' motives. Otherwise, just a lot of ignorant smoke being blown here.
walter williams
Thu, Feb 4, 2010 : 1:56 a.m.
Thanks Jennifer for 'blowing us away' or should I say 'out of the water'. Your unfriendly business policies and over taxation has killed our economy at a much faster rate than the rest of the country. You couldn't even convince the kind of companies you claimed were the answer to our problems to stay here. Companies like Phizer who left Ann Arbor leaving thousands jobless, or Pall Corporation, a life sciences company that also pulled out of Ann Arbor leaving approximately another 400 people unemployed. Go back to canada.
A2D2
Wed, Feb 3, 2010 : 11:10 p.m.
In the words of Ricardo Bontaban, "It's better to look good than to have a balance budget (or something to that effect)".
Somewhat Concerned
Wed, Feb 3, 2010 : 11:02 p.m.
She is a good person but in her years as Governor she has cemented Michigan's reputation as an anti-business state where politicians are beholden to the UAW and programs that require high taxes. Add to that the harm she has done to our best universities (they were our best hope), and you can only be thankful that we're not in worse shape. A nice person, but not a good Governor.