Pigs at the surplus trough ( The Michigan View 05.27.11)

Posted by hpayne on May 27, 2011

Your $428-million-in surplus-government-revenue ship finally came in last week. How much did you get?

Nothing?

After squirreling away a little for the rainy day find, the government class got plenty with Lansing divvying up the booty between public schools and public employees. These are the same public employees that have been largely shielded from Michigan’s Great Recession, suffering no income losses and 25 percent benefit gains while Michigan’s private employees hemorrhaged 25 percent in wages and 5 percent benefit losses according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Coming on the heels of increased individual tax rates, the move was further evidence of Governor Rick Snyder’s deaf ear when it comes to economic politics. But more than that, it is evidence that — even when Republicans control the Legislature — politicians’ first priority is to feed the screaming mouths of special interests rather than meet the desperate needs of the silent majority. As when Snyder effectively raised the income tax from 4.25 to 4.35 percent after his party protested closing the pension loophole, taxpayers were last in line for the surplus.

“The government class feeds first at the trough, not the Republicans’ taxpayer base,” laments Leon Drolet of the Michigan Taxpayers Alliance, the state’s largest pro-taxpayer organization. “But the embarrassing part for Republicans is that the government class is also their base. They are taking care of local schools. Behind the scenes, they are whining and the squeaky wheels always get the grease.”

The good news is that it could have been a lot worse under the hard hearts of Lansing Democrats.

Against cynical claims to the contrary, Snyder fulfilled his promise to deliver a balanced budget by Memorial Day — a refreshing change from the chaotic budget process that led to two late-fall shutdowns under his predecessor. His budget finalized the death of the dreaded “Frankenstein’s Monster” Michigan Business Tax (as View columnist Gary Wolfram likes to call it) — as perverse a job-killer as exists in the land. And though avoiding the better medicine of ending collective bargaining, the Senate (sure to be followed by the House) assured that future budgets will be more manageable by locking in 80/20 co-pays for public emplyee health benefits.

With $255 million of the surplus safely tucked away in the rainy day fund, state employees received $35 million against a scheduled $180 million in cuts. Another $30 million more surplus went to local government revenue sharing and $50 million was added to the Michigan Strategic Fund for economic development, brown-field redevelopment and historic preservation.

You say strapped citizens could better spend that money? Get in line.

The public school monopoly got the biggest lap of milk — $310 million — but even that wasn’t enough for greedy Democrats.

Senate Minority Leader Gretchen Whitmer protested that the K-12 distribution didn’t go to so-called “per-pupil costs” – that is, directly into the pockets of union paychecks. Instead, after $160 million is siphoned away to pay down union pensions costs — Republicans demanded that $150 million be used as incentives for districts to adopt Snyder’s “best practices” like privatizing or consolidating services.

“We had an agreement we would use some of the surplus for per-pupil — (now) they want to attach strings for best practices,” she raged.

Imagine that, accountability in government. Whitmer’s greed is representative of the Dark Ages Michigan is only just climbing out of. But its continued customer service failings — not a penny of refunds for its embattled taxpayer class — is evidence, says Drolet, “of how far we still have to go.”

 

 

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