(Could be IMHO or GD, but thought I’d try for a factual answer)
I moved to Michigan halfway thru Granholm’s first term, and all of my liberal friends (most of the liberals in GR, probably) tell me that Granholm has been trying to fix what Engler screwed up royally. But I’m a little fuzzy on the details.
As far as I know, Michigan did pretty well under Engler. He cut taxes, cut spending, cut the deficit, and brought in jobs. Michigan’s economy didn’t start going south again until Granholm came in.
While not a terrible governor, Engler was not terribly proactive in keeping the state healthy. Part of that is due to the large industries we have here that toss around a lot of weight, but some of the things he did included cutting school education funding, and devoting very very little money to road maintenance.
His road maintenance thign was particularly bad, because he was governor for a LONG time and a lot of our roads have gone to complete shit. It’s Michigan, they need good maintenance. They got so bad he finally got the federal gov’t to give us money to improve some of them, but by that time we were so far in the hole I don’t think we’ll ever get out. You’ve all heard the old joke for Michigan, there are 2 seasons, Winter and Road Construction.
Engler happened to be governor during one of the longest, most prosperous times in our economy. While he didn’t piss it completely away, it’s not like I think we should give him complete credit for it, either. Granholm stepped in just as things started to take a turn for the worse, and has really fumbled trying to get things back on track. It doesn’t help that the
Michigan legislature is run by idiots who couldn’t find their ass with both hands, but sure know how to vote themselves in a pay raise (or, rather, not vote against the AUTOMATIC pay raise they get every couple of years).
Pretty much as above, he per se didn’t screw it up. We had good times. While it’s also true that Granholm didn’t screw it up herself, when times started to worsen, she’s been incredibly ineffective at trying to get things back on track. The fact that she’s being strongly considered for an economic policy position in the new federal administration should be of especial concern to everyone – especially amongst Obama supporters (who presumably was elected to turn things around). It seems illogical to pick to someone to help, who’s demonstrated the lack of ability to do so.
I think this is a big part of the problem. Term limits have created a horrible situation- the parties have drifted to the extremes; experienced, effective legislators get kicked out and replaced by ideologues; and at least a third of the house is completely green.
But how about the strategy of giving tax breaks to large employers to come to, or stay, in Michigan, which effectively screws all the small business, especially those in direct competition. I think Jack Lessenberry did apiece showing how it doesn’t really net many jobs, and the amount of tax lost per job can be quite eye-opening. Did this start under Engler, and Granholm just kept it going?
Engler also did stupid things that cost money. He closed all the mental health hospitals in the state, putting all those people on the street. Now untreated, we had an increase in criminals. So the response was to build more prisons. Wow - that saved money.
Then we also have the “I will drive my Oldsmobile instead of using a helicopter” thing. Yeah, so then we had to pay for the parade of state police to surround the Oldsmobile. Increased payroll, vehicles, etc. Hmmmm.
The road maintenance was already mentioned. Yeah - that is a lasting legacy.
The only thing I learned from Engler getting into office is that every vote counts. My wife was sick on that election day & we did not vote. Have not missed an election since.
Also, he appointed Clif Taylor, who just got thrown out of the state SC. I’ve heard that most of his appointments were bad.
Wasn’t that a case of his opponent having too comfortable a lead, so people weren’t motivated to come out and vote?
I do not recall that being the case - just that there was a personal demotivation in getting to the polls with the wife sick & little kids at home then. I will never make that mistake again.
I think what Great Dave is saying that your two votes didn’t matter, since no one else voted either. It’s really, really rare that individual votes do matter.
Jobs are not really all that affected by state government. When outsourcing came it destroyed Michigan. No matter who is gov. the jobs are gone to China. Not coming back.
But it’s still up to the governor to promote/sign laws the invite other investment in the state. Bad examples: the single business tax. The service tax. Other (per another thread) “epic failures” of the current administration.
There are still things that Michigan people can do that the Chinese don’t.