Pass the budget, not the buck

President Harry Truman is known for the sign he placed atop his desk in the Oval Office, reminding everyone that "The Buck Stops Here." If only the politicians in Lansing were as willing to take responsibility...

An October 1 deadline draws near. By that date the Michigan House and Senate will have needed to pass the state budget with the signature of the Governor or the state faces a government shut down. The Attorney General has decreed that absolutely no money can be spent without a balanced budget signed into law. As of now the state is almost $2 billion short of making ends meet. Lansing, so far, has yet to deal with the situation and mostly what we've seen so far has been grandstanding and theatre, more of the same.

The Republican-controlled Senate has time and time again insisted that the state's budget should be balanced through spending cuts and have rejected several plans and compromises to deal with the budget shortfall through revenue increases. A last desperate measure by Senate Majority Leader Mike Bishop to pass the buck and make the voters decide was foiled last week, and so here we are, right where we were so many months ago when I last commented on the situation. Frankly, I'd put off saying anything else, assuming that the "paid professionals" in Lansing would finally come to some resolution. Especially since the best solution has been sitting on the table for quite some time.

In a previous post here, I called for the legislature to roll back a small portion of the Engler income tax cuts for at least a temporary period of time. Since then many others have come out in favor of the same method for putting our state budget back in the black. Other plans have been floated but none is as elegant or as easily wiped away, should more prosperous times return. Raising the sales tax or adding a new service tax were both equally flawed solutions and harder to do away with.

Though, to be honest I doubt any tax increase will be temporary. Michigan's financial situation is not just a product of "lean times" or a temporary manufacturing downturn as much as it is a product of continued and excessive rounds of revenue cuts as part of a deliberate "starve the beast" mentality among right wing conservatives in the state and the result of the lust for globalization among the country's rich elite who lobby Congress for trade deals that cut the American worker off at the knees and move production to foreign countries, robbing us of our ability to pay our mortgages or our taxes.

Michigan's attempts to to transform itself from an auto manufacturing state to whatever comes next won't be quick or easy, but it also cannot be done without an investment in education and infrastructure. Both have been slowly rotting away as the people have been sold the snake oil of lower taxes and smaller government which come at "no cost" much like those "no interest" and "no money down" home loans. Those little tax refund checks sure feel good but they don't last. Meanwhile, the state is failing to educate it's workforce and it's citizens while the roads and schools crumble. It's time to quit passing the buck and deal with the mess we've created.

Some would say that it's foolish to expect that common sense will rule and that people will see how the "feel good now" tax cuts of the past created this mess and that it's time to own up to our collective responsibilities. Then again, outside of a small and timid group of corporate puppets and timid bureaucrats in Lansing, most people I talk to seem to understand the need to own up to our responsibility to properly fund schools, roads, health care, etc. But yet, the interest groups are already threatening to recall politicians who vote for tax increases, and timid politicians who cling to their cushy jobs and look to take the next step up the ladder of sucking on the public teat are feeling the heat. So, it's fair to ask if we expect politicians to make the tough and correct choices, isn't it time for the voters to do so as well?

For too long citizens have returned to office the very politicians who traded the milk cow of American industry for the magic beans of a Flat Earth. We've voted the guys who offered prosperity without cost and glory without sacrifice. I have no doubt that whatever form the final budget takes in Lansing, there will have to be some form of increased revenue (even the Senate conceded as much when it offered only a meager package of cuts which fall far short of the $2 billion needed). When the time comes, there will be wailing and gnashing of teeth as anti-tax, anti-government special interests threaten recall and primary challenges. We can only hope that our elected representatives belly up and do what's right. But when our time comes will we support the ones who were responsible and wise or will we once again support the short term solutions and the easy answers?

I ask the lawmakers in Lansing to do what's right and pass the budget, then I ask for the voters of Michigan to support them when they show courage and make them accountable if and when they pass the buck.