CHUCK MOSS

   ^{State Representative    40th District}

Toll-Free  877-707-MOSS

^{CONTACT ME!              STATE OF MICHIGAN             EYE ON OAKLAND}

I'm With Chuck!! 

COLUMNS

You Gotta Be Kidding!!!

DO WHAT I DO, NOT WHAT I SAY, DEPT. 

ROOKIE LEAGUE

I get letters. Emails, phone calls, (see contact info above!) As the budget crisis heats up, I've gotten a ton of them, all asking "why don't you just get it together?" "Why can't you solve the problem?" "Quit your partisan ideology and just fix the problem!" "Why can't you just fix it like we do at my job?"

Great questions. And today the answer hit me: because nobody knows what the heck they're doing. 

Seriously. The Michigan House of Representatives is being run by rookies. Let's take Andy Dillon, Speaker of the House. don't get me wrong, he's a smart guy. But he only had two years of legislative experience before becoming speaker. Folks. This is unheard of. In the old days, you didn't even get on an important committee unless you'd been around three or four terms--six to eight years. Speaker? Two years? It's laughable. Dude, you haven't had time to learn where to find the copy machine! And you're Speaker of the House?  Why? Term limits.

I saw at least two deals that would have resolved the budget crisis fall apart on the House floor. Why? The ineptitude of inexperience.   The villain? Term limits.

Term limits means that no one has more than five plus years in the Legislature, at best. Most leadership people have less than that. Experience? Forget it. And that's not the worst of it. When the whole place is full of rookies, nobody has had time to build relationships, to know who in the other party can be trusted, to build networks that can get through crises. "Why can't you all work together?" Because nobody's had time to build trust before the crisis hit.

"I solve problems in my business" one constituent wrote. "Why can't you?" Well, how long have you been in your current position? Howe long did you spend working your way up in the organization? Before taking over as County Executive, Brooks Patterson was Oakland County Prosecutor for 16 years, and years before that as an assistant prosecutor, starting in 1968. John Engler was elected to the House at age 21. By the time he became Governor, he'd spent 21 years in House and Senate. How many executives get plucked off the street and put in charge of multi-billion dollar corporations ?

Term limits.  

Now we have a real situation here, one that would challenge the most experienced team. "Quit being so partisan!" say folks. Well, the deal is that right now, party politics reflect real differences in fundamental philosophy. These differences are fighting it out in Michigan right now. Does more and bigger government lead to more jobs? Can union workers expect labor compensation to go up one way forever? What IS the role of government? How do you deliver prosperity? And there are lots of players out there. During the Thursday night this-close-to-a-deal, when Republicans were willing to vote for a tax hike accompanied by cuts and reforms, a letter was circulated from three unions, including public employees' AFSCME and the American Federation of Teachers, urging no compromises. Shortly thereafter, the process ground to a halt.  Even when the best, most experienced guys are in the room, like with GM and the UAW, solutions don't always come easy. 

So I think that the best thing right now is to understand that you have an inexperienced bunch of rookies grappling with a situation that would tax the most experienced team. Of course you're frustrated and apprehensive, who wouldn't be? But the more I think about this, the more I think that the best thing Michigan can do is realize these newbies are learning on the job. By no means stop the strict scrutiny and pressure. Keep the cards and letters rolling in, and the emails! 

Which brings us to...NO SHUTDOWN!!!!!!!!"  Continuation Budget!

Gov. Jennifer Granholm vowed today that she will veto any plan to continue the current state budget past the Oct. 1 deadline without added taxes to help solve the $1.75-billion shortfall. "The clock is ticking," Granholm reminded lawmakers."  Detroit News, Sept 25th.

The last thing we need now is to stick a clock-timer on an atom bomb, which is what a government shutdown is. Shutdown is a disaster. It means no one can spend a penny. The entire government stops in place. no bond payments, no Secretary of State offices, no doctor re-imbursements, no school aid, no nothing. It's a catastrophe that will have severe and long-term effects. No responsible leader should contemplate it, let alone use it as a political threat for a tax hike.

The Senate has passed a continuation, or temporary budget  for 30 days. That keeps the offices open, the lights on, the checks going out while our rookies work to solve the problem. Yeah, I know we should have done this in May or June. But we didn't and here we are. So let the House pass a continuation budget, and hope Jennifer Granholm does the mature, adult thing and signs it. Just because you're a rookie doesn't mean you can't act like a grownup.

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