It's Time For Me To Leave Michigan, Part 2

As I wrote in my prior post, I am moving out of Michigan this month to take a position at Bob Jones University Press in Greenville, SC. While I believe this is the providential plan of God, and am therefore happy to go, there are some lessons here to be considered for the folks in Lansing.

1. The job environment, quite frankly, is poor. Those of us who want to live here—including people like me with multiple college degrees—are having a difficult time finding jobs that pay enough to support our families. Much of the blame for this belongs in Washington D.C., but the policies that flow out of Lansing have not helped much and have hurt plenty.

2. The job environment is poor because the business climate is poor—especially in comparison to other states. One thing I did some research on was starting my own business (a non-starter due to a lack of capital, especially after Fall, 2008); and even I, as a tax preparer, found much of the paperwork to be boggling.

3. With Granholm in office, there is simply no reason to be hopeful of improvement. Thankfully, she will be replaced with someone else in several months; but if that someone is another like-minded democrat, hope will again evaporate, and many others (like me) will head to greener pastures.

Perhaps I will add more thoughts on this later.

Michigan Unemployment Rises Again! Ugh!

15.2% is the new ugly number. Almost makes you wish for the "good old days" when it was only 8.1%...which it was, twelve months ago. Was this the "hope and change" we bargained for?

As I mentioned in my last post regarding Michigan unemployment statistics, we are moving toward the highest unemployment rate Michigan has had since 1976 (when the current statistics, in their current form, were first tracked), when it was 16.9% in November 1982. The only other state to have unemployment over 15% since 1976 was West Virginia, whose unemployment peaked at 18.2% in March 1983.

Many believe we will surpass that rate before the end of 2009. Ugh.

Detailed data regarding Michigan employment and unemployment:
http://data.bls.gov/PDQ/servlet/SurveyOutputServlet?data_tool=latest_numbers&series_id=LASST26000003

Here are a couple of very telling graphs from that site...first, the number of unemployed in Michigan:

And the unemployment rate, expressed in terms of percents:

Perhaps Governor Granholm was wrong...maybe it will only be three years until we're blown away!

Tuition = Taxes??

Here in Michigan, Gov. Granholm wants to see two things happen this year:

1. Michigan public universities freezing tuition
2. A 3% cut in state operating support to public universities

As if often the case, our governor has ideas which lack a basis in economic reality. Honorable ideals, perhaps (sometimes)...but generally out of touch with economic reality.

Then we have this quote on Granholm's desires, originally reported in Gongwer:

Granholm did not reveal any specifics on how that would be done, but reiterated her view that it is important that tuition be frozen so students don't see "their tuition taxes go up."

Tuition taxes?? What?? Students who attend Michigan public colleges (or their benefactors) are paying for a service—education—which they receive. This service is already deeply subsidized by me and the other taxpayers of Michigan. For the government to merely "subsidize something to a lesser degree" (when many of us would prefer not to see it subsidized at all) does not amount to a "tax" on those who purchase that service.

Students, like other consumers, are free to take their tuition dollars where they choose. To call their tuition a "tax" is disingenuous; we are not free to take our "taxes" where we choose!

Surely Obama Isn't This Stupid?

Among others, Michigan governor Jennifer Granholm, of all people, has been named to "serve on a panel of financial luminaries and corporate experts advising President-elect Barack Obama on the nation’s hard-bitten economy, ensuring Michigan, its troubled auto industry and labor has a seat at the table." [From the Detroit Free Press]

So I ask, WHY? What is Obama thinking? This woman has supervised—nay, dictated by her punitive tax-and-spend policies—the single-state recession by which the other 49 states' economies are measured.

The rest of this panel consists of usual democratic tax-and-spend-policy types, several from the Clinton administration. Former U.S. Rep. David Bonior (D-MI) has also been named to the panel.

Some of us spent the past year saying, "If you like what Granholm has done for Michigan, you will love what Obama [or Hillary] will do for America." I still believe this. And I don't like the thought. Granholm has been a disaster for Michigan.

And The "Good" News...

Governor Jennifer Granholm is please to report that for the first time in months, Michigan no longer leads the country in unemployment! We are now only 49th, with luckless Rhode Island (probably temporarily) taking over the 50th spot. Our unemployment rate is 8.7%, well behind Rhode Island's rate of 8.8%.

If you like with Jennifer Granholm has done with Michigan, you'll love what Barack Obama will do with America!

Today's Reason NOT To Vote For Obama

According to this mlive.com story, Governor Jennifer Granholm may well be on Barack Obama's short list of nominees to the U.S. Supreme Court.

With three liberal justices now ages 89, 75, and 69, it is nearly certain that the next president will have an opportunity to shape the high court for the better; Justices Stevens, Ginsburg, and Souter have all been consistently liberal and unconstitutional in their judgments. To elect Obama is to virtually guarantee that any of them will be replaced with someone just as bad...or worse! Jennifer Granholm fits into that category.

Do you want to see Roe v. Wade overturned? Do you want to see the Court affirm private property rights? Don't vote for Obama!

Maddening Story of the Day

This piece comes from the Associated Press, and can be found here. Here are excerpts...the ones that irritate me...

EATON RAPIDS, Mich. (AP) — Gov. Jennifer Granholm on Monday signed into law a package that will require more electricity to come from renewable sources, raise residential rates, restrict competition among power companies and encourage energy efficiency.

Granholm held two energy bill-signing ceremonies, one in Detroit and one in Eaton Rapids southwest of Lansing. She said the new measures will create new renewable energy jobs.

She had two ceremonies to celebrate the raising of my electric rates?!?

Residential energy rates are expected to rise now that the measures are law. The state's largest utility, DTE Energy, estimated a typical resident could pay an extra $12 to $15 a month for electricity within five years. Consumers Energy, the second-biggest utility, estimated an average residents may pay $6 to $7.50 more.

And, no, the fact that Consumers serves the Kalamazoo area does not give me any comfort.

Oh My, the Irony!

Senator Joe Biden is scheduled to debate Governor Sarah Palin on October 2 in a vice-presidential debate.

Sen. Biden has found a "practice debate partner" with whom to prepare for the debate: Michigan governor Jennifer Granholm. She has scheduled four days to practice with Biden.

So let me get this straight: In order to debate a pro-life, reforming, successful conservative governor, Biden has selected a pro-choice, pro-big-government, failing liberal governor?

However, if Granholm comes back to Michigan and governs like Sarah Palin, then we in Michigan will consider the mission a success!