Standing for Michigan Values

Standing for Michigan Values: A Response to the Governor's State of the State Address

When my children were young, every evening was capped by a bedtime story. My children's favorite stories were those that we made up, stories with colorful fictional characters that bore a passing resemblance to them. With children's bedtime stories, making up colorful characters is a wonderful thing to do because it stretches the imagination. However, a governor's message to the state is not the place for fiction. In last Thursday's State of the State address, there was a fictional character introduced called the "Comeback State". And while there are some aspects of our state that are better for some, calling today's Michigan the "Comeback State" felt to me to be a premature declaration of victory along the lines of "Mission Accomplished".

As a lifelong Michigander, I grew up with strong Michigan Values. I grew up with the belief that people in our state stand for our Michigan. We stand for our seniors. We stand for our working families. We stand for our kids. With this value system, Michigan Values, let's look at whether we REALLY can declare a comeback.

We should be standing for our seniors. Governor Snyder gave Michigan the pension tax, and shifted an unfair tax burden onto the backs of our fixed income seniors. Snyder significantly reduced the homestead property tax credit, making it harder for seniors to afford their homes. A result of this shift in tax burden is greater food insecurity for our seniors to such an extent that we need to increase Meals-on-Wheels programs--which this governor also cut.  For a senior on a fixed income pension, Michigan is not the "Comeback State".  As a state, we need to stand for our seniors by eliminating the pension tax, restoring the property tax credit, as well as addressing food insecurity and transportation needs.

We should be standing for our working families. Governor Snyder raised taxes on low income and middle class families.  Snyder virtually eliminated the earned income tax credit, got rid of the state’s child tax credit, and slashed unemployment insurance.   Not only did the Governor shift the tax burden to the backs of working families, he was relentless in pushing efforts to drive down wages of working people in Michigan.  As a working mom who went back to school in her mid-forties to re-skill to stay relevant at work, I understand that holding a family together in tough times can be hard. Even though Michigan has the third highest unemployment of any state, there was no mention of higher education or vocational education support for people who want to build their skills. If we are not  re-skilling, then minimum wage jobs may be the best many of our citizens can hope to attain, keeping a full-time worker near the poverty line. There was certainly no mention of raising the minimum wage to make sure full-time work keeps you out of poverty. For too many of our hard-working families, Michigan is not the "Comeback State". As a state, we need to stand for our working families. As a state, we need to reinstate the earned income tax credit, restore the child tax credit, provide better support to higher education and vocational education, and increase the minimum wage.

We should be standing for our kids. As the Vice President of the Oakland Schools Board of Education, which serves Oakland County's 28 school districts and over 200,000 students, I see first-hand the harm Governor Snyder has done to public education, including his education funding cut of nearly $500 per pupil. I also see how charter school expansion sends our tax dollars meant to educate our kids to the profit line of education companies. These unfair shiftings of tax dollars fall on the backs of  our kids. There was no mention of how the average age of a homeless person in Michigan is eight. There was also no mention of what we are going to do about having one out of every four Michigan kids living below the poverty line. If a kid is hungry or homeless, how can we expect them to be able to pay attention in school? For an alarmingly large number of our kids, Michigan is not the "Comeback State". As a state, we need protect and increase our investment in public education and address the poverty and homelessness of our children.

Bottom line: do we have a comeback in Michigan? Maybe, for some. The burden Governor Snyder shifted to seniors, middle class families, and kids was to give $2 billion in tax giveaways to wealthy special interests – who didn’t even create good paying jobs with it, but rather pocketed the money.  Our Michigan Values should not apply to only some. In the Michigan where I grew up, in the Michigan where I raised my family,  having things be acceptable for some is not enough. Calling Michigan a "Comeback State" makes for a good bedtime story. I really wish it was true. But we are not at "and they all lived happily ever after" yet. We're not even close.

Theresa Rich (D - Farmington Hills) is a candidate for the Michigan House of Representatives, 37th District.