Pay no attention to those men (and women) behind the curtain. They are busy trying to save their own hides rather than make the tough decisions that will pull us out of the hole once and for all.
"Cuts" are becoming "shifts", different proposals are being raised, all are done out of the public eye, secret deals that may or may not reach down and touch you, who knows, how can you tell, do you really want to know?
No, you probably don't. Doesn't matter, they aren't going to tell you.
Watch them fiddle about as the flames grow higher.
Mike Bishop starts it off. According to the Freep on February 16th, the song was this-
The GOP plan will resolve this year's budget gap -- now pegged at $956 million -- by cuts alone, Bishop said. It's a mistake, he added, to fix the budget "by little cuts" that may or not fit into their plan.
At that time, he said the GOP would have their plan out in a "couple of weeks".
On March 9th, three weeks later, the story has changed, and we hear this-
Sen. Valde Garcia, R-Howell, who was in the audience said Republicans will propose about $500 million in cuts and a similar amount in accounting shifts.
"Cuts alone" are out the window. While that is probably a good thing, more "accounting shifts" probably aren't the answer, either.
Rosin up your bow.
Gutless Republicans still won't show their hand on these cuts, whether it be the $900 million or the $500 million, whichever, take your pick.
"The Republican Party has to put out its cuts," (Granholm) said in the fourth stop on her statewide tour at Lansing's Pattengill Middle School to educate Michiganians about the budget crisis and promote her own solution. "Nobody has seen the list. I haven't seen the list."
This next scenario is so absurd one has a hard time believing the Pubs would even reach for it. Every reporter in the state is asking the $956 million dollar question, would fall all over themselves to get this scoop, and the Republicans are complaining they can't get a microphone.
"We're only hearing the administration's side of the story," Garcia said after the hour-long session, televised in the Lansing area.
They actually have the audacity to cry that their side of the story isn't being told while they refuse to tell it.
"I haven't made it public because I feel the proper thing to do is to have discussions with our legislative colleagues and the governor. This is an ongoing process of negotiations," said Bishop.
Unbelievable.
I'll say it again- there is a reason why we don't see the list. A Freep editorial this morning sums it up well.
A true blood-on-the-floor list of cuts may be the only way to communicate how much of a trashing the state will take without a tax increase. It will surely mean late-in-the-year cuts for K-12 schools, even higher college tuition rates in the fall, and lopping thousands of Michiganders off Medicaid or making a big reduction in the services they get -- which may threaten not only some people's health but also the solvency of hospitals around the state. Granholm will properly continue to downsize the prison population, but it would be best not to do that in the kind of rush she may be forced into if she has no other fiscal options.
No rock should be left unthrown at this point, and it seems the Democrats themselves might deserve a few tossed in their direction. From the "you-can't-afford-the-real-story" MIRS news service comes this little tidbit-
"House Democrats, reluctant to give the governor a vote on her excise service tax, will be given a choice next week between that, a temporary income tax increase or perhaps a third plan that remains under wraps. That's according to two Democratic caucus sources who confirmed the income tax idea has been discussed behind closed doors."
Yet another temporary fix and yet another secret plan to argue over. Good move, people.
Tick, tick, tick goes the clock, and it's killing us. Back to the Freep-
As discouraging as it is to watch companies such as Comerica move jobs out of the state because of the lack of economic growth here, Lansing's ongoing budget deadlock has got to be even more damaging to efforts to recruit new employers. No one can tell them what their taxes will look like, whether education will be fully funded, or even if state parks can be properly maintained. Companies expect to pay taxes; they cannot be expected to endure chaos.
And just think, we get to do it all over again when we "negotiate" the replacement on the SBT.
Yet more fiddling to come. Let's hope the state hasn't burned completely to the ground by the time this song and dance is done.