IS THIS THE WORST GOVERNOR IN THE U.S.?

I used to call her Hurricane Jennifer, because the only states that were doing worse than mine were Mississippi and Louisiana after they were destroyed by Hurricanes Rita and Katrina. It doesn't make sense anymore because both Mississippi and Louisiana are now doing better than Michigan, even while still in ruins. She came into office as our first female Governor in 2002, amongst much fanfare, and even won handily in the 2006 elections. Why would I call Jennifer Granholm the worst Governor in the U.S. you ask? Let me call out the facts.

When Gov. Granholm came into office in January of 2003, Michigan was already in transformation as were all of the "Rust Belt" states, so called because of their reliance on manufacturing. The Rust Belt states include Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, New York, Pennsylvania and West Virginia. Every since I was a young student in High school (mid '70s) the manufacturing in Michigan has been declining. In fact, I remember having a Economics teacher in Jr. High who was already saying that the shop jobs in the U.S. were on their way out. Unemployment in all these states were above the national average as a result. The Rust Belt States in general were seeing hard times and good leadership was desperately needed to keep them afloat. Jennifer Granholm came in promising to be that leader for Michigan. In her own words she promised us, "In five years you'll be blown away". Well, after four, I'm blown away all right, every single Rust Belt state has done better over those four years and has an unemployment rate lower than ours.

For the purpose of refuting any claim that Michigan is suffering a unique situation, let's do a comparison to the state that is closest to Michigan both in reliance on manufacturing and in total workforce, Ohio. Michigan has a total workforce of 5.1 million, Ohio has a total workforce of 5.9 million. (All of these stats are from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics) Michigan has a manufacturing workforce of 637.5 thousand and Ohio has a manufacturing workforce of 797.2 thousand, so Ohio actually is even more reliant on manufacturing than Michigan. Just one of several lies Granholm tells. Ohio has another thing working against it, it has Bob Taft for a Governor, who was voted the worst Governor in the U.S. by SurveyUS. Yet, during the period from when Granholm took office in January of 2003 to December of 2006 when Taft left office, he managed to lower his unemployment from 5.9 to 5.6 while creating over 10,000 net jobs. How did Gov. Granholm do during that same period? She managed to raise our unemployment rate from 6.5 to 7.2 losing over 39,000 jobs net. All this while the U.S. unemployment rate fell from 5.8 to 4.5 for the same period. Taft did the worst of all the other Rust Belt states, but still did better than Granholm.

Another point Granholm supporters try to make in her defense is that John Engler (R) left her with 1.6 billion dollars in debt. While this is true for the most part, nearly every Governor does that when the governorship changes party. John Engler himself was left with a 1.5 billion dollar debt by James Blanchard (D) who was the Governor before him. For this reason, I generally give Governors a 1 year pass on fixing the budget, which John Engler did. For Granholm to try to still blame Engler 4 years later is utterly ridiculous. In fact, Presidential hopeful Mitt Romney (R-Mass) was stuck with a 3 billion dollar debt and still balanced his budget all 4 years.

Granholm is still doing a good job of protecting our schools you say? Not according to a recent study of top Universities by Michigan Auditor General Thomas McTavish published by The Detroit News on March 1, 2007. Michigan tuition is up 37% in the four years of the Granholm administration and is now the nation's fifth most costly. The Granholm administration has cut Michigan Universities funding by $250 million since she came into office. In fact, with inflation factored in, Universities in Michigan have gone from having the state pick up 45.3% of their operating costs 5 years ago to only 34% last year. All of this has lead to Michigan Universities leading the nation with a average tuition hike of $740 in 2005-2006. Not exactly higher education friendly if you ask me and completely contrary to what she has claimed for the past 4 years. For a point of reference Engler increased funding for Universities 50% during his 12 years.

What is the end result of higher tuition and less job opportunity on our future, the young people of Michigan? They are leaving. According to this survey 46% of people under 35 are seriously considering leaving Michigan. Frankly, as much as I love this state, I don't blame them. There is nothing that I can tell them to give them any hope that things will turn around. With her failing philosophy of raising taxes and fees to turn the state around, I'm getting closer to leaving every day, and so is most everyone that I can think of. I can no longer take the burdens Governor Granholm sees fit to heap on my family. She has shifted my property taxes to six months earlier forcing me to put off purchases and vacations. She has raised fees for licenses which cost my daughters, who are both single mothers, money they don't have. She's forced Universities to raise tuition which is causing all my kids more debt they wonder if they can ever repay. She has raised property taxes for this year 3.7% even as my property values fell by 8%. And now she wants to raise my hunting licenses, sales taxes, and taxes even on my only refuge from her, my beer. All of this despite the fact that her General Fund Revenues are up 3.4%. The truth is, she wants to spend $900 million more than she has. Is it any wonder people are leaving?

And the people aren't the only ones leaving. Since her re-election, companies are running for the door. Pfizer Co. out of Ann Arbor has announced it's closing it's shop costing the Ann Arbor area 6,000 jobs, could this have anything to do with the recent decision by the Democrats to reverse tort reform on drug companies? Ford and Chrysler have both recently announced further job reductions in Michigan through buyouts. Most of the people I've talked to who are taking them say they will use the money to leave this state. And then the most recent demonstration of her lack of political skills, Toyota announces it's building it's $1.3 billion manufacturing plant in Mississippi, the only state doing worse than us on employment, or at least they used to be.

Putting all this together, it's hard to believe we're still standing at all, thank God the nation isn't in a recession right now or we all would be doing far worse. Jennifer Granholm seems to me to be a nice person with her heart in the right place but her head in the wrong one. She honestly doesn't seem to understand the politics of drawing jobs to a state that has to compete for them. If it were up to me, I would standardize tort law, environmental law, and labor law at the Federal level. But this is not the reality we are living. We must work harder to draw jobs to Michigan while making the tough choices necessary to keep people from leaving, instead of taxing them out the door. In the mean time, I have a new nickname for Governor Granholm, Buffy the Job Killer. The Worst Governor in the United States. H.C.